Kayleigh Cronin: 'One of my least enjoyable years with Kerry'
LEAST ENJOYABLE: Kerry footballer, Kayleigh Cronin who has teamed up with AIB to support the GOAL mile. As part the campaign AIB is offering people who register for the GOAL Mile the chance to win one of the ten €1,000 prizes for their GAA, Camogie, or LGFA club. To win, people need to register for their GOAL Mile and then enter the AIB GAA GOAL Mile competition at www.aibgaagoalmile2024.com.
Ashamed. Feeling 'fairly low for a while'. A season that she rates personally as 'one of my least enjoyable years in terms of playing with Kerry'.
You wouldn't guess that those words came from the mouth of Kayleigh Cronin; freshly minted All-Star, All-Ireland winner and Player of the Year nominee.
On the face of it, Cronin was the beating heart of a ferocious Kerry team that finally got over the line, winning the county's first All-Ireland title since 1993. Privately, she felt like she was struggling for traction for long spells.
"Funnily enough, if you were to ask me, I'd say that this year was probably one of my most least enjoyable years, in terms of playing with Kerry," she said. "I was fairly low for a while. I was coming out of every single game hammering myself, saying, like...I just couldn't find form basically."
Immediately after Kerry's win over Galway in the National League, for example, guaranteeing their place in the final, she left the field distraught.
"I had tears in my eyes," she recalled. "I was like, 'I can't do this any more'. I just felt so bad about how I was playing and how I was contributing to the group."
The shame that Cronin also spoke of actually came last year, after Kerry's All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin, their second final loss in a row.
"I think it's as low as I've felt full stop, in relation to football or not," said the Dr Crokes player. "Jesus, like, I literally don't really have the words to tell you how heartbroken I was. To be honest, I don't think it's gone away and I don't think it ever will.
"It certainly took a long time for me to raise my head again after that. Even little things like going into town or going to the shop. I was slow for a while, didn't want to meet nobody, didn't want to see nobody. Felt like we had obviously let ourselves down but let everyone else down as well.
"A good word for it is probably ashamed, of how we performed on the day. Myself in particular, 100 percent. I certainly felt ashamed of how I played."
Cronin is speaking at an event to promote the AIB-sponsored GOAL Mile events. It's mid-November, she's out of season with Kerry and is in good spirits yet still feels all the sharp emotions of an incredible few years for the Kerry ladies. Isn't it supposed to be only a game?
"For a lot of people, it is only a game," she shrugged. "But for some people, it is more.
"I think when you put in the amount of work and time and effort that you do, it kind of becomes your number one priority and everything else takes a back seat and for it to all crumble at the end of the season like it did (in 2022 and 2023)...and in particular to have played like we did in those two games, it was very hard to take."
Cronin, a talented international discus thrower initially, has a degree in Athletic Therapy and Training from DCU and a Masters Degree in Sports Performance from UL. She currently works in a gym in Killarney. She sets high standards for herself and acknowledges that 'I'd typically be a glass half empty kind of person - something I'm trying to change because it does no good for nobody'.
Mention to her that she must have been delighted with her 2024 form, in light of the All-Star and the Player of the Year nomination, and she is drawn to tell that story about the league game against Galway, back in March.
She actually pulled off a great block on Emma Reaney in that encounter, to deny Galway a goal, an important intervention in a five-point game. Kerry also made seven substitutions and she wasn't one of them. But her memories of the day are principally negative.
Mags O'Donoghue, a selector, and sports psychologist Claire Thornton were by her side as she left the pitch.
"I said, 'I have to get off this pitch before any kids or parents or whoever come on here'," she recalled, acknowledging that there were some mitigating factors for her apparent dip in form.
"We tried something different in the league. I was kind of playing like a five, six, seven role, instead of the three role, just trying to play around with things and change things around. So we tested that out and thanks be to God, the boys realised fairly lively that I wasn't going well."
What's indisputable is that Cronin excelled when it truly mattered, locking down a Kerry defence that held Galway to just seven points from play in the All-Ireland final.
As driven as she is, she is determined to push on for even greater gains in the coming seasons.
"It's probably a selfish thing to say but after winning one, it's not enough," she said. "Literally I want that feeling 10 more times."
It has been reported that Tralee man Mark Bourke is likely to take over from joint managers Darragh Long and Declan Quill. He would have Cronin's blessing.
"He's had a hugely successful term with Milltown there recently," said Cronin. "A couple of lads from Milltown have spoken very, very highly of him. They've seen the stories, heard the rumours (about managing Kerry) and said that if we get him, we're very lucky and that we are certainly not stepping down in terms of quality or anything."
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