by Daragh Ó Conchúir
It is the nature of team sports that the majority of the plaudits go to the scorers and creators, and not the destructors.
Clare would not have won the All-Ireland hurling title but for the offensive skills of Tony Kelly. But they wouldn’t have won it without the flicks and tackles of Adam Hogan either.
When it comes to garlands though, the hook to deny a goal does not have the same value as scoring one, and limiting the threat of a star forward is not perceived in the same light as your equivalent operator doing the business at the other end.
Mairéad Eviston is unperturbed by this totally unfair reality. The Tipperary camogie full-back relishes her position, what it entails and the challenges that come with it. She jokes that she wouldn’t win too many popularity contests because of the fine line you have to tread when your job is to neutralise.
And like Clare corner-back Conor Leen, whose surreptitious jersey tug forced Cork forward Robbie O’Flynn to shoot wide deep in injury time of extra time last Sunday, Eviston will not be making any apologies for that. It is the metier of any self-respecting member of the defenders’ union.
“It’s something I’ve always really enjoyed,” says Eviston. “I’ve loved marking roles, trying to get one up on someone that might be better than you and finding ways of doing that. In the full-back line, you have to be a bully and unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve a good name inside the four lines! But I don’t mind. I’ll be very friendly with anyone outside them. But inside is different.”
She has had the odd stint up front for Tipp and Drom & Inch but it just doesn’t float her boat.
The 27-year-old has gone through a major transition off the pitch however, having just qualified as a secondary school teacher from Hibernia College, having previously worked for three and a half years in project management with Kerry Group. She starts in her own alma mater, Our Lady’s Secondary School in Templemore in September.
“In school, I would have always thought about teaching but I was steered towards business as maybe being safer. I enjoyed it but I didn’t love it I suppose.
“During Covid then, like so many people, I had more time to think. Working from home as well, just going in logging on to a computer, I felt very isolated though that was the case for everyone at the time. I’m an outgoing person and I found that hard.”
So she jumped into the deep end. It was a courageous move, to follow her heart and passion, having invested so much in another direction.
“It was a big worry. I couldn’t leave it any longer if I was going to do it. I’m 28 next Christmas and will be starting my first year teaching. That’s late for teachers obviously.
“I was living with my boyfriend when I was working but I had to move back home when I went back to college. So there were a lot of things that went into it. It was a big decision not taken lightly but I am really enjoying it. Dad was only saying to me recently, ‘You’re a different person.’”
Being happy off the pitch is showing on it, as Eviston has proven an unyielding, forbidding presence on the edge of the Tipperary square. She played a mammoth role as a two decade national trophy drought ended with the defeat of Galway in the Very League Division 1A final.
The Tribeswomen are back in the opposite corner today with a place in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior final up for grabs (3pm – live on RTÉ One). It would be a first appearance in the decider for Tipp in 18 years. Mary Ryan is still around from then, having joined the panel the previous year – just missing out on the Premiers’ last All-Ireland success in 2004.
The League was vital when after years of incremental improvement, it appeared as if they had plateaued with a number of agonising near misses. They pushed tomorrow’s opponents all the way before falling at the penultimate hurdle in 2021 and the westerners went on to win the All-Ireland, Losing to Waterford in last year’s barnstorming semi-final at UPMC Nowlan Park was the lowest point.
“Three years ago, in the semi-final, we were so close to beating Galway. Looking back on it, I’m not really sure we believed we could get over the line. Now we know that it is plausible that we can win the All-Ireland. You can feel it among the group in training.
“Last year, after 15 or 20 minutes (when they led by 1-3 to 0-0), we probably felt we had one foot in Croke Park. Waterford hard their homework done though and they bullied us really for more than 30 minutes.
“That was probably the sorest loss in a Tipperary jersey I’d encountered. We had improved so much and won the Munster title. We weren’t taking Waterford granted but it was the first time we weren’t meeting one of the big three in a semi-final. It’s one thing to have performed and lost, but not to perform and to lose by one point is very sore.
“In the League final, we probably didn’t come out of the traps as good as we wanted to. I remember we were looking around at ourselves, saying, ‘What are we doing?’
“But we clicked into gear. In the past, we would have gone back into our shell. That’s just experience and stubbornness I suppose. We weren’t going to let another one slip away.”
The difference between this time 12 months ago and last April is that the players have taken more responsibility, a development facilitated by manager, Denis Kelly and his staff.
“We had multiple player meetings in January where we spoke among ourselves about expectations and standards. In the past, we would have been following goals and rules set by management. It was time for us to take charge of that. Also, in the past, there might have been one or two people speaking but there were loads of different voices. So everyone is buying into it.
“Our thing now is to focus on ourselves. You have to take the opposition into consideration but now it’s much more about how we are going to go about it because we have that trust and belief in ourselves.
“We’re still waiting on a real 60-minute performance. And if you asked Galway would they take losing the League final and beating us in the All-Ireland semi, they would.
“But we have a good panel now, with the likes of Mary Burke coming back in after leaving the last year and having a serious impact in the last couple of games off the bench. You have Mary Ryan and Aoife McGrath and Cáit Devane came back after the League.
“You have seven or eight players pushing to be on the first 15 now and five or six pushing to be on the match-day panel. That’s a real change over the years and we will need everyone if we are to get over the line on Saturday.”
