‘Whole team approach’ driving Mullahoran and Reilly on

Ladies football

For years, Sheila Reilly balanced football commitments with club and county with her teaching job in Dublin. Since switching to St Mary’s NS in Arva, the commute has been much easier – and she’s in a football heartland there, too.

Arva men will contest the Ulster Intermediate final in 10 days’ time while Mullahoran ladies, whom Reilly captains, won their Ulster Intermediate final recently against Carrickmacross and face Carlow’s Bennekerry/Tinryland in the All-Ireland semi-final this Saturday at Kingspan Breffni (2.30pm).

“There’s such a buzz and especially this week, they are after getting over their semi-final on Sunday so they are absolutely delighted and the kids are just happy out,” Reilly told the Anglo-Celt on Tuesday.

“They love their football here and I know it means a lot to them so they are very excited. All they want every day is no homework when Arva keep winning so that’s the only issue!”

Mullahoran’s journey through Ulster saw them face three away matches before winning the final in Omagh, which was about as tricky as it gets. Reilly and her teammates set out at the start of the year with ceiling on their aspirations and that attitude has taken them to within one win of an All-Ireland final.

“We spoke before about the hurt from last year’s county final and there’s no doubt about it, it drove us on. We didn’t set any limit on any ambitions this year, we fully believed anything was possible but I suppose initially, the county final this year was huge to get over, that really did mean a lot to us.

“Obviously, we put everything into that and we owe a lot to management because they really did leave no stone unturned. We got any players back on board that we could, we had meetings, we had our pre-season, we just put everything into it and it definitely is nice to be reaping the rewards now.

“It (losing the 2023 county final) left a lot of room for thought, I’ll not say sleepless nights but just, I suppose, we were disappointed as a team, I think we knew there was so much more to us and that was it. We were just so determined that we were going to put things right this year. As I said, we put so much into it and we are lucky that it has worked out.

“I think players, management, everyone just bought into this year so thankfully it is paying dividends but there’s more to come I hope too.”

The run thus far has seen some comprehensive wins and some moments of adversity; a 1-6 to 0-6 win in the teeth of a storm near Donegal’s Atlantic coast tested Mullahoran’s resolve but they found a way.

“When you think of the Dungloe game, first of all weather conditions were horrendous, the game ended up being moved. Dungloe definitely had a lot of homework done on us, they really blocked us up and put a lot of effort into curtailing our forwards.

“That was a really competitive game and there wasn’t much in it at the end, they gained a lot of momentum in the final 10 minutes and we were probably lucky the final whistle went when it did go because they were really driving at us in the last couple of minutes.

“And then if you look at the Carrickmacross game, they probably stunned us in the first 10 minutes. We got it really hard to get going. We’ve been lucky up to this because we’ve started games really well and got early scores on the board but credit to them, they really drove at us and I think we were probably at sixes and sevens for the first couple of minutes.

“Maybe a little bit of nerves, took us a while to settle, but like that, they deserve huge credit because we were shocked in the first couple of minutes.

“I think what we have said for the last couple of games and even drawing on experience from games in the county championships, we’ve come against so many different set-ups – teams that have been defensive, teams that have driven at us… we feel like we have covered so many scenarios and that was what we talked about. No matter what happened in any of the games, we have to realise that we have come across this before.

“We still go back to games in the club championship, our semi-final we were two points down at one point. It’s just trying to draw on that experience and stay calm in those situations, next ball, get a score on the board and just to settle ourselves because I think that’s the most important thing. To try and be as settled as possible no matter what is thrown at you.”

In her interviews and so on, Reilly comes across as a calm individual anyway, you suggest.

“I don’t know, maybe teammates would beg to differ! It’s probably something we’ve all worked on, whether it’s football or life in general, it’s something we all strive to be is calm but there are lots of things that pose challenges there.

“As the older players and the leaders, there are a few of us, we’re probably supposed to guide the younger players but I really do think it’s a whole team approach here. Those younger players, I don’t know if they realise what they bring to our team. They are leading us just as much. There are a lot of good communicators on and off the field.

“Those younger players are coming into all these games with no fear, they don’t have the baggage of past defeats, they’re just going at it so I think we really are all learning from each other. There’s no huge personalities, I think we’re all similar in our approach to this and similar in our goals and what we want and that has been a big part of our panel and our team and our ethos this year.”

The Leinster champions will pose their own challenges.

“They’re definitely a physical team, they’re well balanced across the pitch and have a few pacy forwards as well. They’re Leinster champions, they’re going to be absolutely gunning for this. We have looked at them this week but like that it’s still unknown in a lot of ways, like a lot of the games have been.

“Leinster football is probably different in some ways to Ulster football so that’s probably another aspect but they’re going to be well up for this and we’ll definitely have our hands full, we know that.”

A huge Mullahoran crowd is expected at HQ on Saturday; the parish is steeped in history and football remains at the centre of it. It’s special, Sheila agreed.

“I think there is, there’s so much pride, there’s so much tradition, we’re so community-focused. We’ve had so many people backing us and that’s not just this year, that’s going back years, between men and women, whatever sport it is. There’s a lot of passion for Gaelic football in Mullahoran, as there is in a lot of parishes and communities in Cavan but I think in Mullahoran we definitely consider it something special.”