by Daragh Ó Conchúir

You do not find many Gaelic games athletes make senior inter-county championship debuts after entering a fourth decade on the planet.

In any era, it would have been a notable occurrence, not to mind in contemporary times, with the increased demands of the high-performance landscape.

The other side of elite preparation and conditioning, of course, should be that players possess more knowledge, education and science to fuel continual improvement and keep injury at bay.

As an assistant professor lecturing in athletic therapy at DCU, Sinéad O’Keeffe knows all about the theory. As someone who was 30 when she made her Clare senior camogie bow last season, she has been able to put it all into practice too, and to considerable effect.

The Kilmaley clubwoman’s studies and career emphasis probably slowed her progress. So too, her involvement with the county footballers for a while. But by her own admission, O’Keeffe also doubted whether she was good enough.

Skippering the Banner to victory in the 2023 All-Ireland premier junior final was a reward for giving up her dual pursuits that year and focusing on camogie. And it infused her with belief.

Meanwhile, that team’s manager, John Carmody, stepped up to the senior fold, while the abolition of second-string teams in 2025, removed the safety net of another outlet to wear the saffron and blue. O’Keeffe got the call-up and relishing the opportunity to move out of her comfort zone, she flourished.

The results were evident as Clare reached the Division 1B Centra League final and kept the much vaunted Waterford attack in check for most of the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park later in the campaign. O’Keeffe was a colossus on the edge of her own square and remains the totem in the No 3 jersey.

They are back in the League decider with added motivation, having lost to Antrim by five points 12 months ago. Dublin lie in wait this time in the opening of Sunday week’s televised (on RTÉ) double-header with the Division 1A final involving All-Ireland champions Galway and Waterford, at UPMC Nowlan Park.

“It’s gonna be a very tough game,” O’Keeffe asserts, not unreasonably. “Dublin are quality. We played them first game in the league and drew with them in Abbotstown. So we know that the strength they have and they have girls to come back into the panel as well.

“We’re gonna have to try and really prepare well and have a plan in place for some of their top, top players. But it’s a game that we relish. We’ve had that experience of losing one last year that we’re going to bring to this and really try and push on and get to that 1A competition so that we can compete against the really top teams.”

What O’Keeffe relishes too is the challenge of attempting to neutralise an opposition full-forward. That could be Niamh Mallon one week, Niamh Rockett the next, Sorcha McCartan the one after that. But when you enter the Coliseum, you must be ready to take on the lions.

Having by her own contention, played in almost every position for Clare, including at full-forward, she feels settled now but is quick to remind you that any good days at the office are about the collective rather than the individual. It is the full-back line working as a unit and before that even, the pressure exerted out the field.

There are challenges off the pitch too. Making the round-trip from Dublin to Clare two or three times a week can be a test, though it is a minor inconvenience given the rewards.

More unusual, perhaps, is coming up against someone you have had in a lecture. But, if they come face to face, O’Keeffe has a job to do on the field, just as she does in the classroom and nothing will affect her determination to carry out those responsibilities.

In truth, she radiates with the enjoyment she is deriving from this level of competition, having first joined the junior squad in 2018.

“I suppose it was always a goal (to play senior), but I probably never thought that I would have been able to push for a senior position. So the goal, really, was to win that junior All-Ireland, and then from there, I probably saw the opportunity to push on, played a year of intermediate, and then f pushed into the senior panel.

“I’m probably not run-of-the-mill in terms of making your senior debut at 30. But when I was playing junior, I was focusing a lot on my studies. I did my PhD and started in DCU, which took a lot of time. When I was more established in that side of things, I was able to commit more time to playing inter-county. So I’ve been lucky that I have that ability to push now, give more time to it, and been supported by a job that allows that.

“I probably didn’t ever believe that I was maybe of the quality to play senior. But I suppose winning the All-Ireland made it clear that we had the talent to and that there were the abilities in the team to push on. A lot of those girls moved into the senior panel straight away. So it was from seeing a lot of the younger girls push on and get those solid starting positions, that maybe drove on standards for everybody and brought some of the rest of us along too.”

With Carmody stepping down at the end of last term, coach, Eugene Foudy has taken up the managerial reins. That ensures continuity, which was important given Clare were a couple of years into a reboot that looks to be moving in a very positive direction. That said, there are some regrets from last year.

“We want to be competing in Division 1A, so to be back in the final is great. We were definitely disappointed after losing to Antrim. Our performance on the day wasn’t good enough, and Antrim were a really strong team. So I think that’s where we’re going this year, not dwelling on the loss, but bringing that with us and knowing that we don’t want to be in that position next year.

“Our target every year in the championship is to make that top six, and to be up against a quality team like Waterford was really good for us. That’s the standard we want to keep getting to. I think people often write us off, make us underdogs, and I’m not really sure why, because if you look at the club scene in Clare, it is really strong and players have won a lot of Munster medals over the last few years across different clubs.

“So we have a breadth across the county in terms of really good, quality players. It’s about keeping that consistency now at senior level.”

Whatever happens, O’Keeffe is in rare company as an All-Ireland-winning Clare skipper.

“I live in Russell Avenue, so I come out of my house every morning and I see Croke Park. Being able to actually go up the Hogan steps as captain was huge for me, being able to collect that cup. It doesn’t matter the level, I think they’re all special. Not everyone gets that opportunity.

“You really do appreciate that and I think that makes it even more special that people really appreciate the value in those experiences, and that that was huge for us, for everyone on our panel. I think it showed in terms of girls stepping up then to the senior panel. They were not afraid of that experience. When we went to Croke Park for the quarter-final last year, a lot of girls had already played there.”

They had been well tutored. Now for the mid-term exams.

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