Rebel Rose keeps busy
But her success isn’t confined to camogie.
Last weekend, she was crowned Cork Rose and is already been talked up as a strong contender to claim the Rose of Tralee sash and tiara next August down in the Kingdom.
Certainly, she has a tremendous story to tell and no better woman to tell it. Little wonder she chose a career change to PR and communications. She’s a natural.
The Rose thing nearly didn’t happen and it wouldn’t have if it had come in the way of camogie. The schedule fitted in neatly though and Geary has no problem being busy.
“I can be bored and idle when I’m 40, right now I’ll take all the opportunities,” she laughs.
“I only missed one training session out of the whole lot of them. That was because for the last few weeks, we had training on Friday night and normally we wouldn’t. Last Friday and Saturday, the (Cork Rose) finals were on in Silversprings so obviously I didn’t think it would be wise to go out training in a ball gown!
“I said no initially (to the Rose) when I thought I wouldn’t be able to give the commitment.
“But then one of the girls on the Cork team rang me and said the All-Ireland semi-finals have been moved to the 23rd, when normally the semis and the Rose are on the same weekend.
“But I’d already said no to the lady who approached me to be sponsor and then she rang me back with two days to go. She said ‘this is the last year you’re eligible, it’s now or never’ and I started to think ‘God, you never regret doing something but you might regret not doing it’. It was an experience, meet new people... It’s surreal because I woke up this morning and I had 17 voicemails.”
Geary has already achieved a higher profile than any other camogie player by virtue of her involvement in the documentary Skin In The Game, which also included Michael Carton, Eoin Cadogan and Lar Corbett. It gave a unique insight into the type of sacrifices required by amateur players to perform at the elite level of Gaelic games. It meant a lot to Geary to be able to represent the sport she loves so much.
“When I was doing it, I was conscious that you weren’t just representing yourself, you were representing the entire Camogie Association so everything you did was an extension of them.
“But it received for the most part very positive coverage and it was good to see camogie being showcased as well as the hurling.
“In the last 12 months, the Irish women’s rugby team and Katie Taylor have really made people stand up and take notice of women in sports. The Camogie Association now is really driving that and doing its own things to make people notice camogie. Which is what you really want because the more we seem to be in the spotlight and the more the media take notice, it means increased participation and that’s what the GAA is all about. You want it in every club in every place, rural and urban. That’s the future of the game to make sure you have the numbers.”
There were many memorable scenes in the documentary. The combination of power and athleticism that the Camogie Association is currently emphasising in its own current ‘Our Game, Your Game’ campaign was evident in clips of the game, while shots of Geary’s bikram yoga session ended with her being inundated with Facebook and Twitter messages. There were five marriage proposals.
The highlight though came towards the end though, as she spoke about Cork’s loss in the All-Ireland semi-final. She might have won it all but as she began crying, describing her love of the game and her absolute devastation by the defeat, you understood why. It was pure desire.
“They got it in one take, the first time. It was afterwards when the cameraman was there and he turned around and said ‘we don’t need to do anymore, she looked like a broken girl in that, it was great!’
“Sometimes when we talk about camogie and there’s such positivity and passion because we love our game, when you’re talking about a loss when you put that much time and effort in it, it’s good for people to see the rawness and how much it means. Particularly with camogie players because it means as much as it does to any inter-county player.”
It still does.
“It probably means more now than five or six years ago. I remember winning All-Irelands in 2005 and 2006 thinking we can do this every year. But the longer you go, the more you appreciate every win because you realise you might not get another opportunity to get a cup.
“I might never get a chance to play in Croke Park again for Cork and I was here every year from 2003 to 2009 and it was something you probably took for granted. But the level of competition that is now in our game, you can’t predict the final four anymore.
“Years before, you had a good chance of picking who’d be in the final so from an entertainment point of view, it’s fantastic for the game that you are seeing that. From a Cork point of view, it’s not. I won’t lie. I would love to say we’re going to be in Croke Park every September but it shows how far the game has gone.”
Being on an equal footing with the lads was a key element of Skin In The Game and a credit to Cork producer, Jacqui Hurley — herself a former Cork camogie player. Fortunately, the game now has a sponsor that is driving that equality campaign.
“I’d have to thank Liberty Insurance for that, putting us on the same pedestal as the men, treating us as equals. You see them involved in the World Cup.
“They couldn’t have come in for a better year in hurling and camogie in terms of the entertainment so there’s a bit of pressure on us now to reproduce that. And a bit of pressure on Cork as well to be in the final so hopefully we can produce that.”
With Geary leading them out on match day, you couldn’t bet against it.
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