LGFA MATCH PROGRAMME: ANGELA WALSH (CORK)
By Daire Walsh
While she and many of the team already had five Celtic Crosses to their names, Angela Walsh admits Cork were a highly-motivated group coming into the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Entering the 2010 season with designs on claiming the Brendan Martin Cup for a sixth year in succession, the Leesiders were ultimately eliminated by Ulster outfit Tyrone at the quarter-final stage. There was confidence within their ranks that Cork could return to the top table and with Walsh playing a starring role at full-back, they prevailed at the expense of Monaghan in the 2011 decider on a winning margin of two points (2-7 to 0-11).
“After 2010, as a group we were just so disappointed in ourselves. That match just didn’t go well. Two girls ended up doing their cruciates and there was two yellow cards. It was just such a bad day. I remember at that stage there was talks, will people stay, will people go,” Walsh recalled of that last-eight exit to Tyrone.
“For some of the girls, they were pushing on. Even, will Eamonn [Ryan, the then Cork manager] stay? I remember we met in Larry Coughlan’s and there was just no doubt. Everyone was like ‘yeah, we’re going to stay’. I think 2011 was definitely special. It was just trying to right the wrongs of 2010.”
This victory sparked a further period of dominance for Cork with the late Eamonn Ryan leading his troops to four more All-Ireland triumphs on the bounce. Ephie Fitzgerald was at the helm when the Rebelettes achieved a six-in-a-row in 2016, but unquestionably the most memorable win in this sequence was their classic final encounter against Dublin two years earlier.
A whopping 10 points behind with 16 minutes left to play, Cork rallied to miraculously secure the title on a final score of 2-13 to 2-12. Goals from substitutes Rhona Ní Bhuachalla and Eimear Scally were crucial in ensuring a victory that almost seemed to defy logic.
“To this day, I just don’t know how we turned that around. One of the brothers with me in school, Br Lennon, where I’m teaching. The masters golf was on at the time. He turned over onto the golf and just assumed that Dublin had won!
“When he saw the news that evening he was like ‘what did I miss!?’ I’d say a lot of people did that. When you’re looking at a game, you’re like ‘ah jeez, 10 points, sure they’re gone with 10, 15 minutes left!’ It was unbelievable.”
For pure drama, it was almost impossible to top this game and it ultimately proved to be Walsh’s final one as a Cork footballer. In addition to being in the process of building a house with her now husband, she subsequently became pregnant with her daughter Keeva.
There was an attempt to coax her back into the fold in 2015 but, content with a medal haul that included 12 All-Ireland senior titles across ladies football (nine) and camogie (three), Walsh opted against being involved for what turned out to be another successful campaign for Cork.
“In fairness to Eamonn Ryan, he was so good. He rang me when Keeva was six weeks old. This was 2015 and he was like ‘do you want to come back playing again?’ He said because I was part of it for so long that I was welcome,” Walsh said.
“I was like ‘do you know what, I’m really happy with how it all finished with the 2014 win.’ It was really hard to leave the set-up because when we had been so successful, it’s always very difficult, but my mind was made up.”