For Olivia Divilly, it has been quite the 12 months for club and county when it comes to All-Ireland finals.
For Galway, Olivia was a key part of the Galway team who reached their first All-Ireland final in five years, as they shocked reigning champions Dublin and won a Connacht title on route to Croke Park.
However, it was not to be as they came up short to a Kerry side determined to end an All-Ireland drought of their own.
While Galway will have to wait for their first All-Ireland title since 2004, Divilly is confident the team will learn from this year and take the positives into 2025.
“There is a lot of positives to take from it. It was the first All-Ireland final in five years, and it was a year that we had a lot of transition with players.
“There is so much learnings to take from it, the positives mixed in with the negatives as well. There was a lot of girls that got game time and played in big occasions.
“When we played Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final, we had eight substitutions by the end of extra-time, so to have used 23 girls in an All-Ireland quarter-final, that is very valuable with players in those big moments and being able to hold their own was great.”
At the beginning of the year, the idea of Galway being contenders for the All-Ireland looked somewhat unlikely.
A difficult league campaign with players missing and close defeats, a change in approach paid off in the championship.
“In the league, we were the wrong side of a lot of games. The most we lost any game by was four points., there was a lot of one point defeats, two point defeats.
“We were very disappointed with our own game management, we weren’t seeing games out, we were giving teams opportunities at the end of games.
“That was something we spent a lot of time working on coming into championship, and it definitely paid dividend in the Connacht final and the All-Ireland quarter and semi-finals.”
For Olivia and other members of this Galway team, it will not be the first time overcoming an All-Ireland final, for club or county.
At the moment, focus for Divilly is with her club Kilkerrin/Clonberne, who have won the last three All-Ireland titles in a row, with the latest coming back in December.
This weekend, they take on Salthill/Knocknacarra in the Galway senior football semi-final, as they aim to continue their domination in the west
For Olivia, the hurt and disappointment of the 2019 All-Ireland club final is used as motivation to help drive the club’s success through the years.
“We lost the 2019 All-Ireland final with pretty much the last kick of the game. We were level and it was probably poor game management on our behalf and we let Mourneabbey go down the pitch and kick the winning score.
“That was sheer heartbreak, it was so difficult to get over that game. With Covid in 2020, it didn’t go to All-Ireland stages, and the 2021 All-Ireland final was played in January 2022, so it was 27 months to get back to the All-Ireland final and get over the line.
“That was so difficult, but it makes the winning all the sweeter.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
