After comeback, Briege Corkery has bigger plans for 2019
The comeback, though she hadn’t intended on one, was triggered by an unexpected phone call from Cork camogie manager Paudie Murray.
Briege Corkery was five months pregnant when Paudie got in touch in December of 2017. She hadn’t pulled on a red shirt since September of 2016 and harboured no ambitions of a return to the inter-county scene, so even though the pair would be friendly, she was somewhat bemused as to why he was calling.
“Paudie was like, ‘what’s the story’? And I was like, ‘I dunno, what’s the story’,” giggles Briege, recounting the nub of their conversation “I told him I was not due till March. ‘Sure, you’ll be fine, you can come back after that,’ was his reply. I was like, ‘whatever’. He finished by saying, ‘I’ll ring you again in January to see how you’re getting on’.”
To his word, the Cork manager phoned again the following month. And even though Briege didn’t realise as much at the time, Murray had got her thinking.
On Saturday, January 14, Cork opened their 2018 league campaign with a home fixture against Galway. Briege knew the game was on and for the first time in quite a while, she got an awful hankering to be back involved with the county.
This was in marked contrast to the 2017 All-Ireland final a mere four months earlier and that feeling of nothingness as she sat in Croke Park watching Cork secure back-to-back All-Ireland titles. There was no longing to march behind the Artane Band or ascend the steps of the Hogan Stand as she had done in nearly every previous September going back to 2003. Of far more concern was her three-month scan which was scheduled for the day after Cork’s one-point final win over Kilkenny.
I thought that chapter of my life was closed. I thought, this is it now; I’m a past camogie player and my focus from here on will be on my club and being a mother.
“But when they started back for the 2018 league, I just got an awful grá for it. I don’t know why. Had Paudie not phoned me, I wouldn’t have even thought about [coming back]. And he continued to ring in February and March. He rang me nearly every week to see how I was getting on.”
By this stage, she had forced herself out onto the roads around Cloughduv. Two kilometres down to the pitch, six or seven laps of the place and two kilometres back home. Belated exertion, having renounced exercise for almost the first six months of pregnancy.
“I am an awful creature for doing things backwards. When we found out I was pregnant, I didn’t do a stroke from July to the week before Christmas. I realised then I was putting on too much weight, it was literally piling on, so it was time to start doing something. The last couple of weeks leading up to the birth, I started doing 5km runs, which was totally backwards.
When I got home one night from a run, I text Paudie and said, ‘I’ll be no good to you, it is after taking me 48 minutes to do four kilometres’. Paudie’s response was, ‘are you having an elephant’.
Baby Tadhg arrived hale and hearty in late March. As with any new addition to the family and adjusting to such, several items were temporarily placed in the backseat.
At Orla Cotter’s wedding in late May, camogie conversation was unavoidable. Paudie told the new mother that Cork’s conditioning coach, Martin O’Brien, would be in contact to map out a plan of action. There was no need, reckoned Briege.
“I didn’t think I’d make any progress, didn’t think I’d add anything to the set-up.”
That was but half the story. There were reservations as to how her return would be perceived outside the camp. During a conversation with her sister Katherine, Briege intimated her fear that she’d be accused of having rejoined the set-up solely to try and match Rena Buckley’s haul of 18 All-Ireland medals. Katherine’s advice was rather straightforward; if you want to go back and play camogie, go back and play camogie.
At the end of June, three months after giving birth, the 16-time All-Star (10 ladies football and six camogie) made her decision.
The long road back to full fitness involved numerous 6.30am starts at Newcestown pitch with Martin O’Brien, baby Tadhg often left with Martin’s wife Mary, while Briege was being put through the wringer.
The first couple of weeks were a struggle. The weight wasn’t moving, the 2014 All-Ireland winning ladies football captain frustrated by the lack of progress.
A stricter diet was enforced and incrementally, her form began to return.
“When you are in a team environment, it’s easier. I found it much harder to do things on my own. There were a couple of occasions where Tadhg was sick and Diarmuid was gone training, so I hadn’t time to do the individual work which had been prescribed. You’d feel guilty.
But I was determined to get the necessary work done. I had to send my results to Martin every second day. When I started with Martin, I was around 74kg. He got me down to 62kg in a couple of months.
“Look, I suppose you don’t have to have your life to stop because you’ve had a child. You can concentrate on being a full-time mother or you can concentrate on being a mother, a camogie player and having a life as well.”
Introduced with two minutes remaining in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Tipperary, the brief cameo at Semple meant she played on route to the record 18th medal.
“It was a different feeling after the match, definitely,” Corkery says of the final success.
“Does [the medal] hold less value? For me, it would. That is no disrespect to anybody who does not get to play in an All-Ireland final. When you are used to playing in them, it has a different feeling. If people ask me how many medals I have, I’d always say, 17 and a half.
“I still feel I gave something towards Cork camogie in 2018. And I’d be hoping in 2019 that I could give a little bit more.”
For the moment, camogie is her sole focus on the inter-county front. Mind you, speculation was rife the 11-time All-Ireland ladies football medal-winner was reprising her dual status when captaining Munster to inter-provincial glory in late November. Having accepted an invitation to join the panel, Briege, somewhat naively, expected her Munster involvement to fly under the radar.
When the respective panels were released on social media a few days before the inter-pros weekend in Waterford, the accompanying headlines carried only one name.
“I opened up a can of worms for myself. I wished I didn’t bother saying yes. Then, when we won, people were saying, congratulations, your comeback. I was like, this isn’t a comeback. This was supposed to be something to do on the QT.
I really enjoyed the speed and competitiveness of that weekend. There were other parts of me thinking was I trying to invite myself back onto the Cork football panel, would people think I was going to try to invite myself back onto the Cork football panel. That wasn’t my aim. My aim was to go out and play a match and that was it.
All in all, she’s glad to be back involved with at least one Cork team.
Having grown tired of the inter-county scene throughout 2016, the Bank of Ireland ambassador committed to neither code in 2017. Even before the 2016 All-Ireland camogie and ladies football finals, she confided in Rena Buckley that she was skipping the following season.
In a total departure from years previous, Briege had found herself reading newspapers the Monday after a game to see was she mentioned in the match report. If she hadn’t been, she’d nearly take offence. Coming to and from training, she’d be like a “dog”, giving out about this, that and the other.
“I just ran myself out of steam a small bit. You’d be up at 6.15am, on the farm till 6pm and then off out to training. You wouldn’t be home until 10pm most nights. There was no downtime. I needed a break. And I did enjoy my time away. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, isn’t that what they say. James Masters and Paudie were on to me in 2017 to see would I come back. I was actually going back to the camogie in late June of 2017.
“I had told Paudie on a Thursday that I’d be at training the following Tuesday. On the Saturday, we found out I was expecting. I had to ring him on the Monday, saying, I’m out. I don’t know if he copped straightaway.
“Having Tadhg around is fantastic. Then, on the playing side, it is great to have a goal again for next year.
“I am delighted the way things have worked out.”
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