Looney wants Cork to become a generational team

Hannah Looney knows Cork must add more All-Irelands to rank among great teams.

Thu, 08 Aug, 2024 - 21:08

Eoghan Cormican

The good teams win one All-Ireland. The great teams return to win a second, preferably the year after they collected their first.

But what of a generational team? How many All-Irelands before that lofty status can be applied?

This Cork camogie team is currently residing in the ‘good team’ bracket. After back-to-back final defeats, they finally loaded the O’Duffy Cup onto the front of the bus last
August when annihilating Waterford.

They’re on their way back to Croker this Sunday. The goal is simple: Back-to-back All-Irelands and an upgrade on the status they currently wear.

Half-back Hannah Looney, just so we’re clear, is not looking beyond Sunday and not looking beyond a Galway side that caused her and her
teammates no end of torment from the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final to last year’s League decider.

She knows the challenge that awaits them, but she also knows what she wants for this Cork team. She wants this Cork team to be a “generational” one.

“We are not happy with just having the one All-Ireland under our belt, we really want to drive on and be a generational team, but that’s not easy either. But when you are from Cork, it is kind of what you are expected to do,” said the 27-year-old.

Does that expectation weigh heavy, or is it simply a non-negotiable when pulling on the red shirt?

“It comes with being a Cork camogie player. And I think that is something we had to learn over the last couple of years. When we had leaders like Gemma O’Connor, Orla Cotter, Briege Corkery, and Rena Buckley in the dressing-room and on the field, you maybe took it for granted. And it wasn’t until they were
stepping away, it took some time for other players to step up and really realise that you don’t get anything handed to you here.

“It took some time to build that again, but that is within the group now. You are looking at a panel full of leaders and a really well-structured management behind us. There are expectations on us, but we have to deliver if we want to be considered a great team.”

Looney has been part of the Cork dressing-room since 2014. She joined midway through that campaign as a wide-eyed 17-year-old. Sunday will be her ninth involvement on the concluding afternoon of the camogie championship.

Throw in three All-Ireland ladies football finals and she is more than familiar with the big day.

That familiarity, on weeks such as this, is a guiding brief and a constant reminder of what she’s going up the road for.

“In 2014, I knew I wasn’t going to be playing a part in the match itself, but I remember being up the walls trying to get a dress and shoes for the banquet. These are the things we are told not to think about, but at the end of the day, they need to be done. All that doesn’t faze me any more, which is great.

“If it was my first time going into a final, I might get a bit giddy beforehand and forget about what actually is at the end of it, so for me, familiarity is head down, drive on, there is still a job to do because I’ve been in Croke Park when we’ve lost and there is a big, big difference.”

The haul currently stands at six All-Ireland medals won between the two codes. Along with Libby Coppinger, she has balanced dual demands at the highest level for almost a decade.

But where injury took Coppinger out of the fray for both codes in 2024, Looney found herself in the unfamiliar role of an impact sub for the footballers. Of Cork’s four All-Ireland football championship games, the 2021 All-Star didn’t start a single one.

“I won’t lie to you, Cork football this year for me, personally, had been very, very challenging. But the resilience in me, I was always going to keep at it, and I did, and I am proud of myself for that. It is something I can look back at and be very proud of what I did contribute to Cork football this year, even though the minutes on the pitch mightn’t have been where I’d have liked them.

“You have to be really careful as a dual player that it is very easy if the head is down in football or you are not enjoying it, it can seep in (to camogie), so I am very grateful to have the set-up here with Michelle O’Connor, sports psychology coach, that I could talk to her and get the head right, and have the support of the camogie management group.

“Coming down to this group every day just puts a smile on my face, and I am really honoured to be able to put on the Cork football and camogie jerseys. I’ve been around a long time, and it just goes in the flick of a switch, but I do ask myself am I enjoying this, is it what I want. You are not going to enjoy every minute of it, but it is so special and it doesn’t last for that long so I am really proud to be here.”