By Daragh Ó Conchúir
Saoirse McCarthy missed out on being crowned the PwC GPA Camogie Player of the Year after receiving a second consecutive nomination, but the Cork dynamo’s joy for her teammate, Laura Hayes was as genuine as you could get.
For sure, McCarthy would have liked to have gotten the nod, not least because her family and loved ones were in attendance, but Hayes is a long-time member of that latter category, ever since they first crossed paths more than a decade ago.
There is an interview with the pair of them conducted for Clare TV on YouTube, after they had beaten Clare in the All-Ireland minor semi-final in 2018. They would go on to win that championship and then complete a memorable double as starters on the intermediate title-winning outfit the following September.
McCarthy recalls it well.
“It’s so funny,” says the Courcey Rovers star. “We were warned before it, ‘Don’t talk about training or anything like that,’ and then your man said the word ‘training’. I was like, ‘Training.’ I didn’t know what to say. We were babies.”
McCarthy collected Hayes in Cork on the trip up to Dublin for the PwC All-Star awards function at Croke Park on Friday night.
“We were having a chat, and I was like, ‘This is class. We wouldn’t be here today without each other.’ I was always so competitive. I always wanted to beat Laura, and Laura always wanted to beat me.”
They drove each other.
“Oh 100%. Since we were about 13. If Laura had done it, I wanted to do it twice. She’s so fit and I just always wanted to be able to run like she can and she would find something in me. She would say, ‘I want to tackle you now and get better at that.’
“We’re probably 11 years playing together and competing with each other. I’ve always, always compared myself to her. I remember in ‘21 when she got her first All-Star, I started crying. I was so happy for her. I was like, ‘We did it!’ Like, ‘WE did it. Look at us!’ And then the next year I had to win one.”
They actually have similar games, with coruscating pace, an ambition to drive forward and outstanding shooting accuracy from distance. That meant they invariably were battling for similar roles in county sides, though managers would obviously find a place for both of them.
Meanwhile, they went toe-to-toe at club level too, most recently when Courcey edged out St Catherine’s in the county quarter-final by a point.
“I played centre-forward just to mark her, and she was playing centre-back to mark me!”
And yet a close friendship has blossomed.
“I got a memory on Facebook this morning, and it was 10 years ago today. It was a picture of the two of us, we’re like 13 at this medal presentation. And Laura Treacy was giving us the medals.
“There’s a picture of us in the stand together at Croke Park in 2014 when Cork beat Kilkenny in the All-Ireland. And I was like, ‘Isn’t that gas? Ten years later, it’s like it’s gone full circle and we are both nominated for player of the year.”
This year, they excelled, sharing the same side of the pitch for the first time, up Cork’s left flank. Each a ciotóg, it meant that if Hayes bombed forward, McCarthy would slot into the vacancy seamlessly. Trying to negate that fusion of speed, skill and scoring power was an unenviable task for any opposition.
Given her response to Hayes beating her to the punch as an All-Star, perhaps next year will be McCarthy’s turn to be voted POTY. She picked up her third All-Star last Friday, in another different sector of the pitch at half-forward, having previously been recognised at midfield and half-back. It is a testament to her versatility, her team-first ethic and her class. The 24-year-old is a rare talent.
She has relished the time since the hard-fought All-Ireland final defeat of Galway, “especially going back to the club and all the kids, and they’re delighted, and like, your family and stuff. And I think I did a lot of schools and stuff last year with the cup but this year, I made sure to get around to all my grand-aunts and uncles and stuff like that. It’s been a lovely couple of months.”
The game itself is a bit of a blur. They had felt an improved side having gotten the monkey of a number of final defeats off their back in 2023 and with her and Hayes taken on increasing leadership roles – Hayes took over the captaincy with Molly Lynch a sub and Méabh Cahalane picking up an injury – they moved inexorably to the decider, where they were hot favourites.
Galway have extinguished Cork hopes often in recent years, however, and nearly did so again, coming back from six points down to draw level entering the closing stages before a brace of brilliant Sorcha McCartan points, either side of Clodagh Finn’s classy score saw the game out for Ger Manley’s crew.
Saoirse McCarthy on a trademark run (INPHO/Leah Scholes)
“I just remember being so tired. I don’t know why I was. I just felt really, really, really tired. It was such an intense game. Like, there was never a moment where you could just turn around and take your breath. We went ahead in the third quarter and I thought we had control of the game, and then they’re level and I’m going, ‘Oh God,’ because it had happened to us in the past, where they’ve snuck up and they’ve caught us like that happened in ’21, happened in ‘22 and probably the League Finals as well (in 2022 and 2023).
“I think it’s just about sticking to your principles, though I think in the last 10 minutes I played wing-forward, centre-forward, midfield and half-back. All in the last 10 minutes! I was like, ‘Where am I now?’
“(Full-back) Izzy (O’Regan) went down with a cramp. She ended up full-forward. Amy O’Connor got a block in the middle of the field because she was pulled out. You just have to go with it, you know what I mean? I remember seeing Amy get that block and I was thinking, ‘Why is she out here? What are you doing out here next to me?’ It is a bit helter-skelter but literally, it’s just putting the shoulder to the wheel.”
Whatever it takes. And Saoirse McCarthy certainly possesses that.
