NOT MANY LADIES footballers are known by their first name across the country.
Then there’s Cora.
Currently in her 23rd season, Mayo’s Cora Staunton has grabbed headlines throughout her career, and established herself as a true legend of the game.
She’s renowned for her prolific scoring, while she’s won four senior All-Ireland titles in green and red. Before the league kicked off this year, there were doubts surrounding her return, but she’s well and truly back.
The 33-year-old spoke to former Cavan goalkeeper Alan O’Mara on the latest Real Talks podcast about how hard the decision was, and how Andy Moran was one of the many who advised her to return.
“This time it was definitely 50/50, even a little bit more on the 60/40 side that I wouldn’t go back,” she told O’Mara.
“To get to Croke Park on All-Ireland final day is obviously the main goal now. We’re trying to leave Mayo football in a healthy place, it won’t be one or two going when I go, it’ll be a core group.
“To win a Connacht title and win an All-Ireland in Croke Park. That’s every footballer’s dream, male or female.”
At a young age, Staunton played with the Ballintubber boys team alongside Alan Dillon, before she went to secondary school in Ballinrobe ‘solely based on a Gaelic football decision.’
The Carnacon sharpshooter first linked up with the Mayo senior team at the age of just 13.
In 1999, she was involved in her first All-Ireland final. The Sunday before, Staunton broke her collarbone in a training game and in the final she made a 30-second cameo from the bench.
Looking back, she says it was ‘a crazy decision,’ but a ‘token gesture’ for what she’d gone through the previous year – her mother passed away following a battle with cancer.
“I stopped football for a few weeks after my mother had died. I found everything really hard going and fell out of love with the sport for a short period of time.
“It was very difficult. My life had been in turmoil for the 12 months previous, and I hadn’t been in a good place.
“Things were coming back right again, and then the biggest day in your career comes and you think it may only happen once. To be injured — I was barely able to speak to anyone for a day or two after it happened.
“I was absolutely devastated inside but I had to have a positive mentality. It was massive, but deep down, I didn’t feel like I had achieved what I wanted to achieve.”
She went on to discuss how much sport has helped her, and how she has a lot to thank it for — both in a physical and mental sense.
“The only constant that I had right throughout was sport. If I didn’t have sport, I could have went down many bad alleyways and life mightn’t be as good from a physical and mental point of view.
“Sport is a drug. It’s very difficult to walk away, and that will be a concern when you leave — filling that void.
“If you’re in bad form on any given day for whatever reason, and you go to training or a match, the majority of the time you’ll come home in a better mood. That’s the one thing I’d be worried about — if your form isn’t great, what have you? It’s a release, it’s huge.
Staunton also discussed how she, and other sportspeople — Aidan O’Shea is an example she uses — are normal people, and about how the media and fans often ‘vilify’ players.
“How would they feel if that was their daughter or son? That part of the GAA, I don’t like.
“A lot of bad stuff is said about you, which doesn’t bother me. But it bothers me to think that they’re [family] listening to that in the stand, and it can get quite heated.
“People forget that you’re a normal person too. It’s like you’re people’s property. I don’t mind talking to people in any way, but they forget.
“I’m Cora at home, I’m not Cora the footballer.
You can listen to the full interview by clicking on the link below:
Real Talks / SoundCloud
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Something not right with them this year. There’s almost too many players. No idea.
@Peter Brophy: I think the problem is that Leo is rotating his players too much. He needs a consistent core group of players so that when the internationals come back into the side, it won’t be such a jump. Having said that, it’s worrying that Leinster haven’t had a single good performance this season and they’re only a game away from their first Championship Cup fixture.
A lot of credit must go to how Edinburgh approached the match and made things difficult for Leinster. Reduced to some aimless kicking or loose running, it was up to Leinster to think their way out of it. No trophies won in September so move on to the next one and take the 4 points and them taking nothing.
This team will get much better. They just need to reintegrate all the big names. It was like their first day at school last night…. no need to panic
From a munster and Ireland fan sexton is shitte hot …munster Leinster this year
He brushed over the lineout issue.
A couple of missed calls? How can there possible be a missed call? The pack huddle, make a call and then the prop tells this call to the hooker. Unless either the prop or the hooker doesn’t speak or understand English someone please tell me how they could get the call wrong.
“3 or 4 international class players in every position”
@Paul O’Connor: And yet they look like AIL players. And you can ask why. And the answe is they all think they are the dogs bollo&, but it is high time they earned their wages. They are overpaid, overhyped, muck