By Daire Walsh

Within her own county as well as a rival one, Waterford’s Bríd McMaugh is joined at the highest level of Gaelic football by a number of family members – both immediate and extended.

Whereas she is now a firmly-established senior ladies panellist in the Déise, McMaugh’s younger brother Micheal was joint-captain of the Waterford men’s U20s footballers last year and was named on the same squad for the 2026 season. While he is currently nursing an anterior cruciate ligament injury, his and Bríd’s cousins Cian and Killian Smith featured for the Tipperary senior and U20s footballers within the past week.

They are both members of the Clonmel Commercials club in the Premier County, located less than 10 miles from McMaugh’s native village of Ballymacarbry. Closer to home, Bríd can count her first cousin Kellyann Hogan as a team-mate at both club and county level - in addition to being her former colleague in college football with UCC.

Both players are pivotal figures within the Waterford set-up at the moment and amassed a combined tally of 1-7 for the Déise in their 2-10 to 1-13 draw at home to Kildare in Division 1 of the Lidl National Football League last Saturday.

“Kelly and I are first cousins. We live beside each other. She’s going great now. It’s great that she came back from the AFLW [where she was playing with Collingwood] and she’s flying now. I know she picked up a few knocks over there, but she’s really performing well in the last few games. Especially against Kildare the other day. 1-5 was a great score to put down,” McMaugh said.

“We actually had a good enough run in UCC. Kelly was there for my first year. We got to the final the last few years. Obviously this year we came up short in the semi-final against TUD, but it’s great to play with all those Cork and Kerry players and you do learn a lot from them.

“Obviously when we meet them in championship, it will be a different story. It’s great to get that experience playing with different counties and experience different managers and their points of view.”

Although Waterford recovered from an eight-point deficit in the closing stages of the opening half to secure a share of the spoils with Kildare at Cappoquin Logistics Fraher Field in Dungarvan last weekend, a win was required in order to keep the Munster side in contention for a first NFL Division 1 final appearance since 2002. This means that, instead of being a de facto league semi-final, their round seven meeting with Galway tomorrow afternoon won't have a significant impact on the overall top-tier standings.

Yet despite facing a side that are already guaranteed a showpiece spot alongside Cork at the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday, April 11, McMaugh and Waterford will be searching for a win this weekend to bolster their confidence ahead of the forthcoming TG4 Munster senior football championship.

“Galway have always been a great opposition and obviously we came up short to them last year in the All-Ireland quarter-final, but we have always had good battles with Galway. I think it’s important that we do use it. It’s good to build a bit of momentum going into the Munster championship and I feel we have a lot to work on.

“Obviously we started the league at a better pace. I thought we were working well together, but you have your ups and downs throughout the league. I think it would be good just to get a bit of momentum and we can use our learnings from the last few games.

“Because we’ve had a dip in our performance. The last three games, we’re going on two losses and a draw. It would be great just to get a bit of experience and maybe try some other girls out as well. Everyone get a bit of game time under their belt.”

Whilst she was part of squads that had to come through relegation play-offs in 2022 and 2023, the past two seasons has seen McMaugh and Waterford reaching the quarter-final stage of the TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship.

Their 2025 campaign ended in a defeat to Galway as mentioned above, but last year did see the Déise qualifying for the Munster senior football final and being denied an All-Ireland group stage victory over Dublin by a last-gasp Kate Sullivan equaliser.

There has certainly been significant progress under present Waterford boss Tomás Mac a t’Saoir and his predecessor Pat Sullivan, but McMaugh believes there is scope for even greater improvement within their ranks.

“It’s a really open playing field this year. Even the league kind of showed that as well. Different teams getting different wins. Some of those results you wouldn’t expect. You go on to Score Beo after and you’re shocked. The results have been all over the place, which is great.

“It’s good to have loads of teams on that level, it does actually make it more entertaining and more competitive. We’re hoping to go in well anyway this year because obviously last year was good, but we feel like we could get better. I actually haven’t gotten to a semi-final in my last five years, so I’d love to get to an All-Ireland semi-final at least this year.”

Away from the playing field, McMaugh (a TG4 All Star nominee in 2025) remains a student at UCC and will still have 12 months left on her course once the current college year comes to an end.

“I’m doing a degree in pure mathematics. I’m in third year now. I do thoroughly enjoy it. It’s obviously difficult at times, especially trying to balance coming back for training. There’s a lot of studying involved, but I do really enjoy it at the same time,” McMaugh added.

“When I was in Leaving Cert, I chose maths and the three sciences. I decided to do the mathematical sciences degree and I went down the pure route.

“It’s just six maths modules that we do every semester. Some people think I’m crazy, but I actually do really enjoy it! Obviously it is difficult and you would be spending lots of time in the library. I hope it will be worth it now.”

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