The second coming of Armagh's Louise Kenny

Sat, 24 Jun, 2023 - 09:00

Daire Walsh

In the eight years that separated Armagh’s Lidl National Football League Division 2 final triumphs of 2015 and 2023, Louise Kenny has more often than not found herself as a spectator at inter-county matches instead of being an active participant.

Just a number of weeks after securing the second-tier league title with the Orchard women in 2015 – alongside her clubmate Aimee Mackin – with a final victory over Donegal at Parnell Park, Kenny was ruled out for the remainder of the season with an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury.

Almost three years passed before she donned the Armagh colours again, but she damaged her ACL for a second time while on colleges duty with St Mary’s University College in the spring of 2018. Although she bounced back to play a starring role with Shane O’Neill's at local level, it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that she was back in the Orchard fold.

Having made her return in an opening round success against Cavan at Drumlane, Kenny went on to feature six more times in their Lidl NFL Division 2 campaign. This included the competition’s showpiece encounter with Laois at Croke Park on April 15, when Kenny was selected at left corner-back as Armagh ran out 4-9 to 2-10 winners.

“I had been approached by the last few managers that have taken the teams, but I just didn’t think that I was in the right space. I know it has only been a few years since I did the knee, so I was just making sure that I was looking after myself first,” Kenny explains.

“Because I’d be close friends with Aimee, and she was playing away and training away, I had it in my head that I probably would like to go back at some stage. It was just maybe the injury side of things that was holding me back.

“I was doing well with the club and I just felt ‘sure why not give it another go?’ I’ll not be playing football for too much longer. Give it another go and see how it goes. I’m happy with how it’s going.”

After that league victory a little over two months ago – which was also her first time to play at Croke Park in a competitive game – Kenny went on to make two appearances as a substitute against Cavan and Donegal in the TG4 Ulster Championship before earning another starting berth in last weekend’s win against Laois in Portlaoise in the All-Ireland series.

She is fully embracing her latest re-emergence onto the inter-county scene, but given how difficult it has been to get to this point, Kenny continues to apply a cautious approach with the help of Ruairi Grimes and Dermot Bellew – the strength and conditioning coach and physio to the Armagh team respectively.

“Between the three of us, I just have to be honest and manage it as best as I possibly can. I did think ‘should I go back?’ With club, you probably don’t have the resources or the same professionalism as your county set-up. They are looking after me this year and making sure that everything is okay before I step onto the field."

Another tough group assignment awaits them in the form of Connacht champions Mayo at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday afternoon (throw-in 3.30pm) and that is all that Kenny and Armagh are focusing on at the moment.

“Obviously they’re a Division 1 team and have been playing great football over the past number of years. It will be a big test for us, but we’re looking forward to it and everybody is going well. It will be a good game on Sunday,” Kenny added.

“Obviously we had to dust ourselves off quite quickly after the Ulster final. Things just didn’t go our way, but we had a quick turnaround, two weeks. We had played Laois twice already this year, we know each other quite well.

“They’re a great team Laois, they never give up as we saw on Saturday there as well. They played right until the final whistle. It was good to get back into winning ways, but we’ll take each game as it comes and we’ll look no further than Sunday.”