CORK’S LADIES FOOTBALLERS rank among the greatest sporting sides in Irish history.
Alongside Mick O’Dwyer’s dominant Kerry sides and Brian Cody’s all-conquering Kilkenny, Eamonn Ryan’s exceptional bunch of players deserve equal recognition for their achievements.
In his time over the Rebelettes, Ryan transformed them into the most dominant force the sport has ever seen. Cork have claimed eight out of the last nine All-Ireland titles, while some dual players have also won a couple of camogie All-Irelands in the last five years.
“We were singularly lucky that while we had a number of players who had won nothing we had a number of young players who had won underage. The young players who came in saw these older players behaving very responsibly even though we got a few bad beatings early on, they saw those older players thinking that this was the right way to go.
“The older ones subliminally groomed the younger ones to that mind-set. The two gelled and it’s happening all over now because the little babies who came in at 16 and 17 are now acting just like the older players at the beginning did and grooming the younger ones who might be in danger of letting success go to their heads.
“It’s very much down to the maturity of the players, the lack of hype in the camp.
The lack of support for female players is a big bug-bear. It annoyed me but I wouldn’t be consulted on it.”
Clearly frustrated by the scheduling of club games the week before an All-Ireland final, Ryan admits it is something he has become accustomed to.
“20 of the girls played football last week and 12 had hurling games. We trained on Sunday morning and the last one played a club game on Sunday evening! I don’t think any male would be asked to do that.
“The Friday 16th of Sept 2005 I had three layers training the week before final and on the 16th of Sept 2014 there was something like 18 players playing games. It was all football that night. The people who asked me to train the team are also running this like. At 73 I’m not going to start fighting about it but you can draw your own conclusions.”
The former Glenville footballer has had a lifetime of experience within the game and has a great deal of admiration for this group of players.
“I worked with Sciath na Scoile, Na Piarsaigh (in Cork) hurlers, the Cork footballers, this crowd are so humble. That sounds patronising but they appreciate what you’re doing, they seem to understand that this is an inexact science and even you get it wrong so they never cast aspersions on your ability, they never question your stupidity and that has stood big-time to us.
“It’s the mentality that keeps them going. They’d never, through their body language, communicate that they were bored or not working. They’ve a very mature outlook to the thing, that’s the only thing I can see.”
