At the end of Kerry’s league victory over Galway at Fitzgerald Stadium in March, rather than celebrating, Kayleigh Cronin was so upset with her performance she immediately sought refuge in the dressingroom.
It was the latest low in what she considered to be a dip in form. She questioned if it would ever get better.
Slightly more than four months later Cronin was named Player of the Match in the All-Ireland final. She went on to win an All Star and was shortlisted for Footballer of the Year.
“Funnily enough, if you were to ask me, I’d say that this year was probably one of my least enjoyable years in terms of playing with Kerry. I was fairly low for a while,” says Cronin. “I was coming out of every single game hammering myself, I just couldn’t find form basically.”
Cronin is the rock in the Kerry full-back line but the Kingdom management trialled a few different roles for her during the league, operating primarily around the half-back line. But with the move not working out, she was redeployed to the edge of the square for the business end of the season.
That league game over Galway was a turning point.
“I actually nearly ran off the pitch. Mags O’Donoghue, one of the selectors, and the sports psychologist, Claire Thornton, they were both either side of me and I said, ‘I have to get off this pitch before any kids or parents come on here.’
“I had tears in my eyes, I was like, ‘I can’t do this no more.’ I just felt so bad about how I was playing and how I was contributing to the group.
“So, I did a lot of work with Claire and had a good few chats with the lads [then managers Declan Quill and Darragh Long] as well, just to find different bits and bobs that I was doing to feel positive about.
“It was up to me as well to try to turn it around and say, ‘It’s not about you, girl. Like, who cares once you are winning?’ And just try to find a way to help the group. Thankfully I did that in the tail end of the year.”
There was a sense of destiny watching Kerry this season. After they came so close in previous years, it felt like 2024 was their time.
The Kingdom had lost finals to Meath in 2022 and Dublin in 2023. The defeat to the Dubs was particularly devastating.
“I think it’s as low as I’ve felt, full stop, in relation to football or not,” explains Cronin. “I literally don’t really have the words to tell you how heartbroken I was. To be honest I don’t think it’s gone away and I don’t think it ever will.
“It certainly took a long time for me to raise my head again after that. Even little things like going into town or going to the shop, I didn’t want to meet anybody.
“It felt like we had obviously let ourselves down, but let everybody else down as well and a good word for it is probably ‘ashamed’ of how we performed on the day, myself in particular, 100 per cent. I certainly felt ashamed with how I played.
“I think it’s a phrase that’s thrown around fairly often, that it’s only a game. For a lot of people it is only a game, but for some people it is more.
“But look, I do think it stood to us. I think it gave us a huge amount of character coming into the third year, to show that we could come back again and we were ready to face it all again.
“Once that final whistle went, that initial feeling was something else. It was more than I expected, to be honest.”
Cronin delivered a tour de force in that All-Ireland final against Galway. And yet for many years she was on a very different path.
A talented athlete, from the age of 12-13 she gave up Gaelic football and concentrated on other sports. She proved to have decent prospects as a discus thrower and received a sports scholarship to DCU, where she studied athletic therapy and training.
But in her third year Cronin suffered a shoulder injury, preventing her throwing for several months. During that period, she popped down to Dr Crokes training one night and pushed an old door open again.
“It was only when I went back playing with the club that I realised how little fun I’d say I was having in athletics at that stage,” she recalls.
“I was competing internationally at the time. It’s a small sport in Ireland so a lot of what was done was very individual. It took a bit of a toll, it just wasn’t too enjoyable.
“I got a lot from it though. I certainly don’t regret it, learned a lot from it, travelled a good bit, and met a lot of good people that I’d still talk to today.”
The Kerry players have created many memories in the months since capturing the Brendan Martin Cup – not least an opportunity to walk out on the pitch at MetLife Stadium before the New York Jets facing the Houston Texans earlier this month.
Kerry have yet to confirm a new manager for 2025 but it is understood Tralee’s Mark Bourke is favourite to be appointed. And Cronin says there will be no lack of motivation within the group to remain top of the pile next year.
“It’s probably a selfish thing to say but after winning one, it’s not enough. Literally, I want that feeling 10 more times. I don’t know what I’d get that feeling from otherwise only the final whistle after an All-Ireland final day win. So it’s definitely not the end of it for this group of girls.”
*Cronin was speaking at the launch of this year’s GOAL Mile. AIB are offering the chance to win €1000 by registering for the GOAL Mile this Christmas at www.goalmile.org.
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