TG4 LGFA ALL-STARS
JUNIOR PLAYERS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR NATASHA FERRIS INTERVIEW
By Daire Walsh
While she didn’t arrive at The Bonnington Dublin Hotel on Saturday, November 18 with high expectations, Natasha Ferris was pleased to come away from the night with a big personal honour to round off a memorable 2023 in the colours of Down.
Nominated alongside Roisin Ambrose (Limerick) and 2022 winner Blaithin Bogue (Fermanagh), Ferris was a popular choice for the TG4 Junior Players’ Player of the Year.
In a tense 1-7 to 0-8 victory over Limerick in the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship decider at Croke Park, Ferris contributed five points to her side’s final tally. This brought her haul for the competition up to an outstanding 7-31 – leaving her just a single point adrift of Clare attacker Fidelma Marrinan in the race for the ZuCar Golden Boot award.
“The two girls [Ambrose and Bogue] are fantastic. We played Fermanagh and Limerick a couple of times this year and they were two of the girls we would have been looking at before the game. They’re top, top players. Going there I didn’t have any high expectations, I was happy enough just to be nominated for it along with the other girls,” Ferris said of receiving her individual accolade.
“It was a bonus when my name was called out anyway, that’s for sure. We obviously set out to win the All-Ireland and to get those individual awards after is lovely, but player of the year was definitely a special one to get. I was sitting among the best players in Ireland. It was brilliant.”
Unsurprisingly, Ferris was also one of seven Down players to be named in the TG4 Junior Team of the Championship for 2023. The Duffy sisters – Orla and Laoise – were also included on this list, while Amy McGivern, Orla Boyle, team captain Meghan Doherty and Aoife Laverty also made the cut.
Although this team – and the TG4 Intermediate Team of the Championship – were first announced in September, it wasn’t until a function held at Croke Park on November 3 that these awards were actually handed out. Ferris herself wasn’t in attendance on the night, however, and explained that she just about made it back on Irish soil to pick up her Player of the Year prize a little over a fortnight later.
“I was on honeymoon. I was just back from Australia the night before the All Star banquet! I was originally supposed to go in January on my honeymoon, but I postponed it so I could play all of the league and commit the full year to Down. I got away, so I unfortunately missed the team of the championship.
“It was fantastic for the girls to be recognised. So many of our girls put in great performances over the course of the year.”
Despite first making her debut against Donegal in the 2007 Lidl National Football League – and her championship bow in a clash with Meath the following year – Ferris has had plenty of time away from the inter-county scene in the past.
After helping the Ulster side to secure an NFL Division 3 title in 2013, she subsequently dropped off the panel and generally concentrated on her club duties with Bryansford. Ferris did briefly return to the fold in 2018, but it was when the current joint management team of Peter Lynch and Caoibhe Sloan took charge in 2019 that she fully re-established herself in the Down set-up.
Her absence from the group meant that she wasn’t involved for their triumph in the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Football Championship in 2014. Even though she was cheering on her county as an enthusiastic supporter for this success, Ferris admitted that missing out on that day might have been playing on her mind had she not secured the junior crown this year.
“It was more so other people would have been saying to me ‘you missed out on the All-Ireland’ or whatever else, but I was there supporting the girls and watching them. I was delighted to see them win, but of course that would have probably been a big regret of mine if I hadn’t won the All-Ireland this year.
“I didn’t really play an awful lot of county over the years. It was more so playing club football. Then when Caoibhe and Peter came back in then, they contacted me to come back.
“I think I played for a wee bit in 2018 under Kyla Trainor and Ryan McShane, but 2019 was sort of when I came back for the championship. I haven’t looked back since. That’s sort of when my county career really took off or when I committed to it the most.”
Now 33 years of age, Ferris – who works as an accountant – put her fine form for 2023 down to being able to hit the ground running in Division 3 of this year’s Lidl NFL. After registering four points in an opening round defeat to future TG4 All-Ireland IFC winners Kildare, she continued to score freely as Down narrowly missed out on a spot in the Division 3 final.
“That sort of ran through then to the championship as well and we obviously then had a good run in Ulster too. I think that bit of confidence grows and you’re getting the performances in as a team as well. Obviously getting on the scoresheet then sort of helps you to have a bit of confidence to go for scores you maybe wouldn’t on another day.”
For the majority of Ferris’ time as an inter-county footballer, Down have operated as an intermediate championship team. Currently back in collective training as they prepare to open their Lidl NFL Division 3 campaign away to Roscommon on January 21, 2024, she is adamant the Mourne women are more than capable of holding their own in the second-tier of ladies football.
“You look at the [intermediate] final, Kildare and Clare. We went away to Clare and were beaten by two points. We were really disappointed that day not to get the win. We sort of threw it away,” Ferris added.
“You look at Antrim as well. I don’t think there is a massive difference in the standard between the higher junior and intermediate. They [Antrim] could very easily have been in an intermediate final this year too. They were just pipped by Clare. We’d be pretty confident going into intermediate that we could give it a good go.”