Midfield maestro
December 30, 2005
Ciara Mulligan is a much decorated lady footballer but her determination and ambition still shines through.
God help Aughnamullen and Monaghan ladies football if Ciara Mulligan is seconded by her employer to work abroad in the coming year.
Ciara is a software engineer by occupation based in Dublin but if she departs these shores for whatever length of time, club and county will find it difficult to replace her.
Ciara's terms of employment are such that she can be asked to work outside of Ireland at any time. Mobility and flexibility applies to work as well as play.
The ace midfielder could well be faced with an invitation to return to work in Sweden where she was based when the Sarsfields lost the mens' JFC final a few years back.
If she takes up the offer, Sweden's gain will be very much Ireland's loss, ladies football in Ireland, that is.
Ciara is one of her club and county's outstanding footballers and would be a priceless asset if listed on a sporting stock exchange.
Thirteeen years after first representing her county, she has established herself as one of the country's leading lights.
The 2004 Monaghan Ladies footballer Player of the Year and Aughnamullen's division three Player of the Year is a player club, county or country can afford to lose.
But we shouldn't pre-empt any move abroad. And it will come as some comfort to her legions of fans to learn that in the short term, at least, Ciara will be staying put.
It's important for everyone in ladies football circles that Ciara continues to be a gem in the crown jewels of ladies sport in this country.
The DCU graduate hopes to contribute to the increasingly popular field game many more years of her time and energy and the sort of commitment she has shown to date.
That sort of commitment has seen her undertake a gruelling schedule over the past few years when at college in the capital but, especially, since joining the workforce.
Employed by a leading multi-national mobile phone company, Ciara's 2005 schedule, for instance, would make even the most ardent player grimace at the intensity of it all.
On a Monday, for instance, Ciara would find herself leaving work in Dublin at approximately 4.30pm and taking a bus to Blackhill/Killanny or wherever county training might be held before eventually returning to her flat in Clonskeagh at around midnight. That itinerary would be repeated on Thursday nights as well!
Ciara admits such a schedule was mentally and physically draining but she always enjoyed the training laid out by Noel Marron, ex-Magheracloone and Monaghan star.
Even though it was a huge step for her to move up from division three club fare to inter-county provincial and All-Ireland levels, Ciara adapted quite easily, she confesses.
"Obviously the training with the county team is harder than with your club; more intense too and different too in that there's more numbers at the county training.
"But the fact that I've been with the county since playing with the under 14s meant that the step-up from club level wasn't too difficult for me," 23-year old Ciara explains.
Certainly anyone who has seen Ciara in action of late for club or county can testify to the fact that her experience, football nous and commitment shine through.
It's hardly wonder she appears like a lady to the manor born on the field of play given her curriculum vitae in ladies football.
Over the years, the personable Aughnamullen native has won a hat-full of honours for club and county and has gained a legion of admirers for her determined, forceful play.
Three Ulster SFC medals, two All-Ireland runner-up, one National Football League, two All-Ireland MFC, one Ulster under 16 and a Ulster under 14. Not bad, eh?
Ever since her early teen years, Ciara was rather pidgeon-holed as a midfielder. On the rare occasions she might have been employed as a ball-winning attacker.
"It's mostly been as a midfielder that I've been used. I only played in the forwards a few times but I prefer midfield.
I don't think I'm skilful enough to play in attack and I'm not sure whether I'd be of the best use in the forwards for the team," she opines.
Apart from the fact that her 5'9" and nine stone frame makes for a tailor-made midfield dynamo, what attracts her to the midfield role?
"As I said I'm not great for scoring and there'd be question marks over my tackling if I was a back so midfield suits me.
"I like the freedom that you have in midfield to move about the field and you're better able to influence the play and help out both the backs and the forwards."
Interestingly the very experienced midfield dynamo reckons that, over the years, ladies football hasn't got any more physical but the usual suspects still are the toughest.
Ciara says an increase in the physicality of the game is only really manifest when Monaghan come up against certain other teams.
"It depends on the opposition really. I've had no serious injuries thankfully over the years but it can be pretty rough sometimes against certain sides.
"I don't think Ulster football is as rough as the football played in other provinces; at least that's my experience from the All-Irelands and the national league.
"There's a perception in other provinces that ladies football in Ulster is rougher; similar to the perception of mens football in Ulster by non-Ulster players."
Not that Ciara isn't well able to take the smooth with the rough, literally, for she has the physique, the mental strength and determination to compete against the best.
Of course, the highly intelligent midfield schemer has experienced her share of lowlights as well as highlights over the last 13 years or thereabouts.
Daughter of former Aughnamullen Hackett Cup winner Jim Mulligan, Ciara fingers the losing of All-Ireland SFC finals in 1998 and '02 as particularly sore ones.
"2002 was really one that got away from us because we missed a lot of chances against Mayo and we conceded too many frees even though our defenders were good.
"On another day we would have been that bit sharper up front and made more of our chances," explains Ciara who was partnered in the middle that day by Catriona Brady.
And what of the similarly agonising final defeat four years previously when Waterford played party-poopers to a tee?
"1998 was totally different to 2002 because it was a really high-scoring and free-flowing match and a far higher quality game," she explains.
Reflecting on the Monaghan senior team's exploits in 2005, Ciara says "we made hard work of winning the Ulster title but did well to reach the league semi-final."
Losing out to Mayo in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final was another bitter pill to flow in what was "a really bad game in Mullingar and one to forget".
In some ways, Monaghan senior ladies proved to be too inconsistent during the past year, losing to Donegal in the first round of the championship being a case in point.
"I think the Donegal defeat was poor; it was a bady day at the office but I think it served a purpose in that it was a wake-up call for us.
"We improved after that to beat Tyrone and Down and then Tyrone again in the Ulster final which gave us back-to-back senior provincial titles."
Pointedly while still convinced that Monaghan ought to have beaten Mayo in last summer's quarter-final, Ciara doesn't think the Farney county would have beaten Cork.
Ciara admits to having been very impressed with the Rebel County girls in their All-Ireland SFC final victory.
"They were really up for it and included five of the girls who had won All-Ireland camogie medals just the week before so the county had a real momentum going for itself.
"At the start of the year I probably would have put my money on Galway winning the All-Ireland and they, along with Mayo and Cork, will again be the teams to beat in '06."
Nearer to home, Ciara figures that Donegal may be the team to watch in Ulster in the near-future as she has been impressed with their underage players of late.
Armagh will be there or thereabouts in the next few years too, Ciara suggests, especially if the county can keep the squad that won the All-Ireland junior title together.
And what of the Monaghan team that she will surely be at the heart of in the next year?
"I definitely hope we'll be in the running but maybe we need to filter in some more new young blood before we can get back to the top again.
"We didn't cut it in 2005 but there's still a good balance within the squad and we'll not be far away," says Ciara.
Meanwhile on the club front, the affable software engineer can't see any team in the county denying Donaghmoyne a hat-trick of senior championship titles.
"They're a bit ahead of the rest of the clubs in the county," she contends.
And what of Aughnamullen?
"We'll do our best but the side is a bit young just yet but we'll still have a chance of winning the junior championship if all the players are available.
"We were disappointed to last the semi-final of the junior league earlier in the year but the spirit is good in the camp and you never know what next season will hold."
Leave it to Ciara though to brighten up the scene, one way or the other.
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