Carla Rowe lives so close to the Meath border in north Dublin the smoke from the celebratory bonfires down the road last September might well have wafted in her windows if she’d left them open.
She did, though, witness the “camaraderie and the celebrations” of her noisy neighbours, and couldn’t begrudge them. She knew how she felt after winning her first All-Ireland in 2017.
But did she tire of hearing that Meath beating Dublin to win their first senior title was good for the game?
“No,” she says, emphatically. And then she breaks in to a smile. Gracious as she’s attempting to be, she’d be a strange Dub if her happiness for Meath overcame the pain of losing to them that day.
“It hurts to lose, of course, we’re all competitors, but I know how hard the girls from Meath, Cork, Dublin, Kerry train because we do it ourselves, so you’re not going to begrudge them their celebrations. You nearly wish that everybody could experience that feeling at some point. But we’ll use that defeat to drive us forward.”
And Rowe is no stranger to having to use defeats on the biggest day to drive her on. She was, after all, on the Dublin team that lost three All-Ireland finals in a row to Cork, between 2014 and 2016, before they cracked the code and won the next four.
When she lined out for Dublin last September it was her eighth All-Ireland final in as many years, her record now standing at lost four, won four. If her journey was graphed, it would resemble the Richter scale.
There was a notion after that loss that several in the Dublin camp, including manager Mick Bohan, might call a halt to their own journeys and walk away, but Bohan is staying on and, so far at least, there have been no player retirements.
For Rowe, the defeat just made her all the more determined to come back this year and put things right.
“For me, a lot of times disappointment turns in to anger. And then I use that anger to motivate me to do better. Yes, I was hurt. And there are still days when you’re sitting in the car and you’d get lost in your thoughts. But you have to learn from it, you have to move on. My outlook on life is that there is no point wallowing in things that have happened in the past.
“I’m not saying we weren’t shellshocked or not hurt – we definitely were. But only so much of that is a benefit. After that it becomes a negative. We’ve a strong team. After those three years of losing to Cork you kind of say, ‘ah look, this is enough for me’, but by sticking together we reaped the rewards. And we’re sticking together again.”
On board
Bohan’s decision to stay on was, for Rowe, huge.
“The best manager in the country,” as she describes him, is “the foundation of the entire building of this group”, so him saying ‘alright, that’s it, we are going again’ meant everything.
“Mick has put in so many years, he owes us nothing, and he could have easily walked because he has a family, he has work, so it’s a long time to commit. It’s fantastic to have him back on board.
“There’s no full confirmation yet with Niamh McEvoy and Siobhán McGrath, but I wouldn’t be pressing players asking ‘are you coming or not?’ Sinead Aherne and Lindsay Davey, those kinds of warriors, their bodies need an extra bit of time, so they are off for now. They need that time to get their bodies right because their playing age is quite old . . . they might not like me saying that. We’ll wait and see, I’d say it will be another little while before decisions are made, but, for now, no retirements.”
And if that group stays intact, it’s not like a major overhaul is required, Dublin’s September defeat was, after all, their first in the championship since the 2016 final.
“No, there are no major fixing issues,” says Rowe. “On the day we just didn’t perform well, and we looked at that. But it’s not a major flip-the-table situation. You look back and wonder did we lose the hunger? I’m not too sure. But the hunger I have now is definitely way, way more than I’ve had over the last couple of years.”
And it’s not like combining her Gaelic football with life beyond the sport has gotten any easier for the 26-year-old.
Rowe is back in college, doing a Professional Masters in Education.
“My week is quite condensed with no weekdays free. My lectures are Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, four to eight. I’m working full-time except for Thursday when I’m doing college work. I’ve DCU training and Dublin training and gym to be doing. So I enjoy my Saturdays, my only free day.”
Despite that schedule, she and Dublin are, she says, working even harder in training in advance of the defence of their Lidl National League Division One title, their campaign kicking off away to Waterford on Sunday.
After that it’s their old pals Cork, who they beat in last year’s final, before they head to Navan on March 6th for a reunion with Meath.
By the year’s end, Rowe will trust that Meath will have to close their windows to keep out the smoke from the bonfires in north Dublin.
