Corkery chuffed for former teammates who ended UCC wait
Rosie Corkery of Cork in action against Saoirse Lally of Mayo during the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Group 2 match between Mayo and Cork at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, Mayo. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Cork footballer Rosie Corkery was thrilled for her former UCC teammates who finally claimed Ashbourne Cup camogie glory with a 2-15 to 0-7 triumph over UCD in DCU last Sunday.
Corkery suffered defeat in three O’Connor Cup football finals with her alma mater, so she was particularly happy for the small selection of dual stars who finally got their rewards.
“I was absolutely delighted for the Ashbourne girls. It was some win for them and it was a comprehensive win as well. There’d be a good few girls with an overlap there with O’Connor Cup and Cork.
“You’d the likes of Aoife Healy and Leah Hallihan, and then Sarah O’Brien as well from Limerick. She would have played O’Connor Cup with us in college. I was absolutely delighted for the girls, going to get a bit of silverware into UCC.”
Having spent five years in UCC studying dentistry, Corkery now finds herself being employed in the field – splitting her time between locations in Ballincollig and Killarney. While the polished wing-back does have a considerable workload that she combines with her duties as a footballer with Cork and her home club of Naomh Abán, she had an even finer balance to strike throughout her time as a college student.
“I started working there at the end of the summer. I’m really enjoying it. I suppose a big switch up from being in college. My course was five years. It’s a very intense course in general, but fourth and fifth year was very intense. We had a lot of exams. Trying to juggle football and social life, and trying to get in a part-time job there as well.
“There’s a lot of juggling going on, but credit where credit is due to the inter-county managers I had at the time and the UCC managers I had as well. I’d often have days off training or whatever and they’d be so understanding.
“It was good to have the bit of football there as well to take my mind off the college when I could. When you know you have to study for a few hours and you can go away to training, it’s definitely good for load management of study and load management of football as well.”
By lining out for Cork at the senior grade, Corkery has followed in the footsteps of her brother Tadhg – who featured for the Rebel County in the 2020 Munster senior football championship final and also won a National Football League Division 3 crown in the same year.
Having cemented a starting berth in 2025, Rosie has also been a prominent figure thus far this year for Cork in Division 1 of the Lidl National Football League. After playing her part from left half-back when the Leesiders drew with Kildare in an opening round encounter at MTU Cork on January 25, she was named in the same position for a subsequent victory over Galway at Páirc Uí Rinn seven days later.
She and Cork had been due to face Armagh in Dromintee last weekend, but an unplayable pitch at St Patrick’s means these counties will now face each other at St Oliver Plunkett Park in Crossmaglen Sunday at 1pm.
Greg McGonigle’s charges are set to provide a stern test of Cork this weekend and on their return to the top-tier in the aftermath of a successful NFL Division 2 promotion campaign in 2025, Corkery readily admits there are no easy games at this level.
“We were happy to get out of Division Two last year. We were looking forward to playing the top teams up in Division One. It’s a good prep for championship. These are the teams we’ll be meeting again,” Corkery added.
“We’ll just take every game as it comes. We’ll be meeting Dublin, Kerry, Meath, Armagh. We’ve yet to play all them. They’ll definitely all be big challenges for us to face and hopefully we’ll take a few learnings from each game.”
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