Long serving Galway star still relishing the battle

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

If you could bottle the enthusiasm and love of the game that former All-Ireland winner and Galway ladies football midfielder Geraldine Conneally has and put it on the open market at a competitive price, you would become a very rich person, indeed. Mega rich.

Conneally is just one of those people who cultivates optimism and generates hope but, then, she is a nurse by profession. It’s in her nature. After coming off a 12-hour night shift – for the third night in succession – she still radiates positivity at 8am in the morning.

“Last night was not too bad; it was the best out of the three,” remarks the Dunmore player. “I am finished now until next week. I was supposed to do four nights but one of the girls covered for me. It is usually four and then back to three but I will pay her back next week. So, I will have the raw deal next week,” she laughs.

Given the demanding nature of her profession – most will agree the nurses are the backbone of the health service in this country – and her club and county commitments, you would wonder how Conneally can keep going. Nay, you would wonder why she keeps going.

“I suppose, I have it off to a tee at this stage. The girls I work with on the ward (St. Michael’s Ward at UHG) are very accommodating and they will swap shifts because they also enjoy the football scene. They are a great bunch and that makes it easier from a work perspective but I do miss trainings.

“You can’t make every session with work but the management in the club and county are both very understanding. I suppose, I have got a good few years of practice trying to juggle between the lot so it does come a bit easier. Once you enjoy it and you get a kick out of it, you don’t feel it is demanding.”

This Sunday, Galway ladies footballers bid to secure the three-in-a-row of provincial titles when they face Mayo in the decider at McHale Park, Castlebar. The last time Galway completed the three-in-a-row was between 2004 and ‘06 when the county was at the height of its powers.

That first Connacht crown in 2004 provided the platform for the Tribeswomen to launch a successful bid for a first ever All-Ireland senior title, defeating Dublin in the decider, and Conneally, like her team-mates, believed the world back then laid at their feet. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Although Conneally looks to secure an incredible eighth Connacht senior medal this Sunday, the return to the summit at national level has proved to be out of Galway’s reach. You would not blame her if at this stage of her career she had become disillusioned, but Conneally is not that sort of person.

“When we won the All-Ireland in 2004, it was brilliant. In 2005 then, we seemed to breeze through all the games and then we were in an All-Ireland final. I think we, maybe, got complacent. We arrived up to Croke Park not expecting the bombshell Cork were going to drop – they arrived on the scene that year – and next thing we were defeated.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.