Ashling Thompson on Cork future: 'If I'm hungry for it again in the winter, it'll be back on'

The Rebel County midfielder battled injuries during a campaign that ended on a high.

Ivan Yakubets, aged 4 and Darcie Reede, 6, with the O'Duffy Cup and Cork players Emma Murphy, Ashling Thompson, Avril Cashman and Méabh Cahalane. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Right about now, the sweat still barely dry after capturing her seventh All-Ireland senior camogie medal, Ashling Thompson isn't sure about going again with Cork in 2027.

"It's hard to know where I'm at when you've spent an entire season injured," reasoned the 36-year-old midfielder. "Because everyone is like, 'Will you give it another go?' And if you asked me now, and I am this tired, I'd probably say, 'No'.

"But I know that injury has dictated a lot of my season this year and probably is the reason that I feel so worn out, burned out at times. So I'll have a think over the winter.

"A fella said to me the other day, 'If you think about it, that means you still want it. If it's a straight up no, that's when you know it's over'. So I'll see. If I'm hungry for it again in the winter, it'll be back on."

Thompson's struggles with a badly broken elbow in March, and a hamstring injury upon her return midway through the Championship, are well known at this stage. Less so that she also battled a calf muscle tear in the middle of it all.

"There was a 1B tear in the hamstring the Tuesday before the semi-final, I actually had a 1B tear in my calf as well but luckily that was asymptomatic," she revealed. "So I kind of just kept that under wraps to be honest with you.

"I was very unlucky, it was the same session, I did both. But look, I managed to keep it in one piece in the last two weeks."

The payoff was playing a central role on All-Ireland final day - her switch to the centre-forward position for the second-half was significant in terms of hammering Galway's hammer and dulling Ciara Hickey's influence - and ultimately capturing another medal.

"Croke Park is a mental game more than physical," said Thompson, explaining the psychology behind an All-Ireland decider. "I always relate it to going into a UFC ring - there is no way out, and it's completely mental. The physical kind of looks after itself.

"Psychologically, you need to stay clued in because you saw it there, a six-point lead at one stage and it came down to the wire again, one point in it."

Despite how close it was in the end, after Galway reeled off the last five points of the game, Thompson still felt relatively comfortable in that closing quarter hour or so.

Over the course of the season, she has learned to trust in a group full of new players and fresh faces.

She saw the nerves in Ava Fitzgerald, Isobel Sheehan and Millie Condon on Sunday morning, before the game, but wasn't worried. She told them she felt the same.

She saw the huge impact former All-Ireland winning Cork hurling manager Donal O'Grady had on the group too.

"Massive," enthused Thompson. "What a cool man, just cool as a cucumber, cool as a breeze. He has the one-liners, he's brilliant with the one-liners. Even when things seem like it's a panic and the management might come in and it's panic or, you know, they might feel like they need to get us motivated, but it's always just the smallest, simplest piece of information that Donal will give you. And it just makes you feel nice and calm."

O'Grady set the Cork players a challenge on Sunday morning, to bring them all together.

"We all had to take a pledge that we were all going to be northsiders for the day," smiled the Milford icon. "It was just simple things like that, to take your mind off the game, and everyone took the pledge! We were all northsiders for the day together. Ah, Donal's been brilliant, and on analysis as well, he took that over. Just a key man."

Thompson's personal tale from the 2026 final was a half spent at midfield followed by that important switch into the half-forward line after the break.

"I suppose anyone in general might think, 'Oh, she's not getting on the ball'," said Thompson, referencing how spectators might have interpreted her switch to attack.

"And they also were thinking we need a bit more firepower up front, but I knew Ciara Hickey was getting on oceans of ball as the plus one, and she was doing the same against Kilkenny in the semi-final.

"She's a great player, she got on oceans of ball and I knew she was making it quite difficult for our inside forward line to get that delivery in. So I think, yeah, the idea in my head - and the management were kind of giving me free rein - but in my own head I decided that I was just going to stick with her and force her up the field to mark me basically, and that forced them to kind of sit somebody else back who I knew wasn't so comfortable and that completely opened our forward line, which was perfect."