TEAM OF THIRTY
Aoife Laverty talks to Daire Walsh about her journey from Derry to Down and her success in Croke Park earlier in the summer.
By Daire Walsh
After previously featuring at the venue in the colours of a different county, Aoife Laverty was thrilled to secure the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship title with Down at Croke Park on August 13.
Back on September 24, 2017, Laverty was part of a Derry side that played out a 3-7 to 2-10 draw against Fermanagh in a JFC decider at GAA HQ. The replayed encounter between these two Ulster rivals was held at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones a fortnight later and while Laverty a kicked point from midfield, it was Fermanagh who ultimately prevailed with four points to spare (2-9 to 0-11).
Despite being a native of Derry, Laverty has strong family ties to Down and subsequently moved to the Mourne County in recent years. Although an injury sustained in advance of their semi-final showdown with Carlow at Parnell Park in July initially cast some doubt over her participation, Laverty was fit enough to line up alongside namesake Aoife Brogan in the middle of the field for her long-awaited second outing at Croker.
This year’s junior showdown against Limerick was every bit as intense as her previous bout with the Oak Leaf women, but a 43rd-minute goal from substitute Orla Swail was enough to secure a 1-7 to 0-8 victory for Down on the day.
“I’m originally from Derry, but I’ve moved up from Down. My Dad’s side of the family are from there. I have connections there and I’ve been there for a couple of years. It was hard, but I think the Down girls have been very welcoming to me,” Laverty remarked in the aftermath of their All-Ireland JFC showpiece triumph.
“It’s my second time there [Croke Park], we drew with Fermanagh that year. That was a disappointing match with themselves, but it’s great to be on the winning side now. The crowd is just brilliant.
“I don’t think you can really explain the experience there. It’s just brilliant, it’s so well organised. I think that’s why we were told not to let the occasion get to us, just play the match. That’s what everyone did.”
When Swail – who also struck a crucial three-pointer in their semi-final win over Carlow at Parnell Park in July – replaced corner-forward Eimear Fitzpatrick on 38 minutes in their duel with Limerick, it was part of a double replacement. Having worked hard to overcome a groin injury that ruled her out of that penultimate round meeting with the Barrowsiders, Laverty made way for RGU Downpatrick’s Paige Smyth.
Clara Mulvenna, Kate McKay and Emily Martin also appeared off the bench to help Down over the line and Laverty feels it is every bit their success as those who were started the game at 11.45am in north Dublin.
“With the management, we have just such a big panel, it’s not about who starts. It’s the finishers that come on. I just ran myself into the ground and had nothing left. The management made the best decision and Paige did a brilliant job when she came in. All the subs did. They really lifted the game. It’s a team of 30 rather than a team of 15.
“I think a couple of us were borderline injured and we were trying our best to get fit, for as long as we could, for the match. It took its toll on us, you could tell we weren’t fully fit, but we had the girls to bring us over the line. It was brilliant.”
While Laverty was able to bring her Croke Park experience to bear on the day, she wasn’t alone in this regard. On September 18, 2014, Down were crowned TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football champions with a convincing 6-16 to 1-10 success at the expense of Fermanagh on Jones’ Road.
Nine years before captaining the Mourne outfit to a third-tier title, Megan Doherty played the final 14 minutes of this game. Orla Boyle was also a part of the Down full-back line for their All-Ireland victories in consecutive decades across two different grades and had a big part to play in ensuring that the West County Hotel Cup will be safely nestled in the province of Ulster over the winter months.
Additionally, the aforementioned Mulvenna and fellow substitute Emily Martin also had All-Ireland intermediate medals from 2014 and added a second Celtic Cross to their collection.
“You look towards Meghan for the leadership and she just really does everything for the team. She’s the hardest trainer as well. I think when our heads went down when we were two points down, we kept calm and she was the leader of that. I think everyone had the mentality of keeping calm and trusting the process. Play our own game.”
Following their relegation at the end of the 2022 inter-county season, Down were hell-bent from the word go this year to reclaim their intermediate championship status for 2024. The return of Peter Lynch and Caoibhe Sloan as joint managers after a 12-month absence was also a massive boost for the squad, as was the appointment of former Down men’s footballers Mark Poland and Kevin McKernan in key coaching roles.
In the final season of their previous tenure in charge of the team – 2021 – Lynch and Sloan guided Down to the quarter-final stage of the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Football Championship. Having achieved their stated target for the year, Laverty believes they are now in a strong position to push forward in the second-tier.
“I think that was the goal of the whole season. We could have been blindsided by it because we’ll play where we have to play. That was always the goal. We knew that we were an intermediate team, but we had to go show it and I think we did.
“Definitely, this will push us on. We’re not happy with the standard that we’re at. We’ll keep pushing until we’re at our best. I think even throughout the year we haven’t had a great game throughout. I think we’ll just keep striving and see how we get on in intermediate, but hopefully we’ll keep going. Keep striving.”
A graduate from Ulster University Jordanstown, Laverty (who plays her club football in Down with Bredagh, but previously represented Derry’s Steelstown Brian Ogs) currently works as a speech and language therapist in Belfast.
Striking a balance between her job and her ladies football commitments can be difficult at times, but Laverty is happy with how things are going both on and off the pitch and sees no reason why that should change moving into 2024.
“It is interesting, it keeps you on your toes. You’re always busy. I think when you have Gaelic, it’s nearly that you have two jobs. It’s trying to find the balance between it, but I love both of them,” Laverty added.