Denise Gaule would have had trouble imagining how 2016 could get any better, the Kilkenny woman having already played a major role in an outstanding camogie year for her county.
The National League title was won in May, and a 22-year wait for a senior All-Ireland title ended in September when her seven points helped the team to victory over Cork.
But then the cake was iced at the Citywest Hotel last Saturday when Gaule won her first All Star and a place at right half forward on the team of the year.
And seven years after she was voted Young Player of the Year, her peers chose her as the 2016 Camogie Association/WGPA Senior Players’ Player of the Year.
A decent end to 2016?
“Not bad, I suppose,” she laughs. “Winning the All-Ireland was the main thing and that was all about the team, but of course, it’s massive for me to be acknowledged by people I’ve played with and against, people I would have looked up to like Orla Cotter (Cork) and Kate Kelly (Wexford) [the other nominees for the award]. You know how much work you’ve put in all year, so it’s nice to know you played a part and to be honoured in that way.”
Different challenge
Seven of Gaule’s team-mates – Emma Kavanagh, Collette Dormer, Anne Dalton, Meighan Farrell, Miriam Walsh, Julie Ann Malone and captain Michelle Quilty – were also named in the team of the year, while Ann Downey was chosen as manager of the year. The haul, then, gave the camp yet more to celebrate, but the Downey-infused ambition and steel is evident – they’re already planning for 2017.
“We’re all back down to earth by now,” says Gaule, top scorer in Kilkenny’s semi-final and final victories. “I suppose it’s time to think ahead to next year already. Winning one is great, but you mightn’t be considered a really good team until you do it again. Whenever we meet up we talk about it, of course, but I think everyone is just excited for next year. It’s a different challenge now, we haven’t been in this position before, defending the title.”
Downey, she says, didn’t win 12 All-Ireland titles by dwelling on what was already achieved.
“Ann wouldn’t let us sit on our laurels, she’d say it herself, how many she won, and she’d drive that into us. She was one of the greatest, always looking to the next challenge, and that’s what she wants from us. We’ll always look back on this with pride, it took us so long to win it, but it’s something to build on now.”
Before September’s success, Kilkenny hadn’t collected the O’Duffy Cup since 1994, when Downey captained the team, the county losing six All-Ireland finals after that. Gaule featured in three of those defeats – in 2009, 2013 and 2014 – and while she and her team-mates were loathe to talk of psychological barriers, jinxes or the like, on reflection she concedes there were barriers to be broken.
“I think there was definitely some kind of a mental block, whether we wanted to admit it or not,” she says. “Losing three All-Irelands was tough. We were so young back in 2009, we were all 18, 19, but then in 2013 we didn’t even show up on the day. We knew it would just take a day when we did show up and then we could beat anyone. I think we were just a lot more mature this time. Going up to the match it wasn’t that I wasn’t nervous, but not as much as previous years. Playing in Croke Park didn’t feel as daunting. And that’s credit to Ann and Paddy [Mullally] and all the management, they kept our heads down, our only focus was the match.
Confidence
“And we just had way more belief in ourselves than other years, we just believed we could go out there and beat Cork. Ann and the management had belief, but there’s only so much other people can do for you, you have to have your own confidence. But she helped instil it.
“The previous couple of years had been difficult for us but when we saw that Ann was coming back we knew she wanted to win it as much as we did, she’d give anything for Kilkenny camogie, she showed belief in us all year.
“Every year we were always hoping we’d do it but that was the big difference this year – we said there’s no more hoping, we’re just going to have to make it happen. And we did. All the work we put in over the last few years paid off, thank God.”
A perfect 2016, then, but she’s already thinking about making 2017 just as good. “It’s not that we have to forget that we won it – it’ll give us greater confidence, when things are tough we’ll always have that in the back of our minds, we’ll know we have it in us. It’ll be a different challenge for us I suppose, defending the title rather than trying to win it for the first time, but it’s a lot easier going back after winning than after losing. And we have plenty of experience of losing as well. It’s nice to be on the other side of it.”
