SHE’S WON ALL-IRELAND medals with Cork, but now plays her inter-county camogie with Dublin.
She’s played National League with Cork City, both alongside and against high-profile soccer stars such as Stephanie Roche.
She was once asked into Eamonn Ryan’s admirable Cork ladies football panel. “You’re raw but I could work with you,” were the words of the man himself, a compliment of the highest regard.
Sarah O’Donovan is quite the all-rounder.
But it’s camogie she’s sticking to for now. A new job is what ultimately resulted in a twist of fate, a move which saw her switch her rebel roots for a sky blue jersey.
O’Donovan moved to Dublin in 2014 and started playing her club camogie with St Vincent’s. A teammate from her club in Cork, Ballygarvan, introduced her to the Marino outfit and she’s been there ever since. From there, stemmed an opportunity to join the inter-county panel, a decision which O’Donovan was wary about at first.
“Shane O’Brien was coming in as the new Dublin manager that year, and he was changing a culture,” she recalls. “He wanted a squad of players who were going to commit to the setup and commit to the structure. They ran trials then in November.
I remember ringing my Dad going, ‘Jaysis Dad, Shane O’Brien wants us to come out and play with Dublin. Can I? Should I? What would people say?’
“And he said, ‘Well, look you’ve been out of Cork hurling for a long time, they’ve kind of retired you. You have to be honest with yourself here, you’re not going to get into any Cork team. If you want to play inter-county, you might as well go for the trials.’”
That was her mind made up. She caught O’Brien’s eye at the trials and was named in the panel.
The year that followed was a huge one for Dublin, impressing in the championship but most noticeably in the league. Kingpins Cork had beaten them by 37 points in the summer of 2014, but by the time they met again the following March, the deficit was reduced to just five.
“You can imagine there was a lot of apprehension, having lost by 37 points in the championship and then I’m going, ‘This is my new team and I’m playing against my old team-mates and I’ve won All-Irelands with these,’ and you’re hoping that we’re going to show up.”
As she says herself, that result was what really galvanized Dublin as a team. A 32-point turnaround within a matter of months is a serious achievement in itself, and a statement that the Dubs had well and truly arrived on the inter-county camogie scene, and were a force to be reckoned with at that.
Obviously, there was the possibility of friction and sourness with her ex-teammates on the day, but O’Donovan says there were no hard feelings over her decision.
“That day in Parnell Park, there was only three or four who would have played when I won the All-Ireland with them in ’06 and played with them in ’07. Briege [Corkery] and Orla Cotter would have been two that would have been in my vicinity.
“They’re both ladies and they understand sportspeople want to play and they want to train, so there wouldn’t have been animosity.
“And then I suppose, the big disrespect now is that the girls who are playing now for Cork don’t have a clue who you are. The corner back doesn’t know that you used to play for Cork, or that you were in her position 10 years ago.”
After the 32-year-old originally hung up her Cork camogie jersey nearly 10 years ago, her focus turned to another sport she loved.
Growing up, she had always been a talented soccer player. She represented Ireland at underage level, up to U19. When the Women’s National League started up, O’Donovan grabbed the opportunity to line out with Cork City with open arms.
This venture saw her play alongside Denise O’Sullivan, who now plays with Houston Dash in America, and Clare Shine who has since moved across the waters to Glasgow FC.
“I wasn’t involved with Cork camogie teams and I wasn’t going to be involved,” she recalls. “I wasn’t going to get a look in, they had kind of moved on without me.
Getting to go back and play with Cork City meant that I was training at that top level. The National League had just started so you’re marking players like Stephanie Roche in Turner’s Cross on a Saturday. She scored an absolute screamer the day I marked her but it’s fine!
“Players like her, players like Denise O’Sullivan. Denise used to play 10 and I was playing at 8, so I was actually feeding the ball to Denise. All I had to do was get the ball to her. I was rough and ready and Denise was ‘the’ player.”
Maybe rough and ready, but raw talent at that. So Cork Ladies football manager Eamonn Ryan thought anyway.
O’Donovan played with Cork up until U21 level. She also lined out with her club Valley Rovers and juggled both football and camogie when she studied in UCC.
“My U16 [Cork] team would have been the year above Briege [Corkery] and Rena [Buckley] and them. So it was the year before they became incredibly successful. We were going well, and then the following year they just blew us out of the water. I was the year before everything kind of changed for Cork.
“I remember playing in college and Eamonn Ryan was our manager in UCC at the time. I was playing with the second team because I was playing camogie properly full-time and he came up to me after the O’Connor Cup game, I had been playing midfield, and it was a right dog fest.
“He goes, how did he put it now, he said something along the lines of, ‘I could work with you, you’ve got the basics, or there’s potential there’ was it? ‘You’re raw,’ that’s what he said. ‘You’re raw but I could work with you, would you be interested in coming in?’”
It was an offer she turned down. That was in 2005, and since then she’s never kicked a ball at that level, missing the boat for Cork’s incredible senior football successes.
In hindsight, you look back and you go ‘Eamonn Ryan said you were raw but he’d like to work with you’ — and you turned it down? Where would you have gone?’ I don’t know if I’d have gone very far but that’s my biggest compliment.”
An English and Law graduate, O’Donovan has also had a stint in sports journalism. She worked with the Evening Echo and the Examiner for six years, covering matches every weekend.
She now works with the Mark Pollock Trust. At 22, Pollock — a two-time Commonwealth Games medallist — lost his sight and in 2010 he had a freak fall and became paralysed from the waist down. He fought back and is now helping lead the charge to investigate and fundraise for medical advances in the area of paralysis and spinal cord injury.
She initially joined Mark’s team because of her friend Jamie Wall, a Cork dual player left paralysed after he developed an abscess on his spine.
“It was more cathartic for me to do something for Jamie, to get him as close to the research as I could by being able to show him that it was happening. That was my initial starting point.
“But then obviously when you meet Mark [Pollock], he becomes this absolute force of nature in your life, and you realise that you’re not tired, there’s no such thing as tired. There’s no such thing as can’t or won’t, or we’ll look at that in a different way.
“There’s no such thing as no. We always manage to find another way and we’re really excited. We’re hoping to start a clinical trial towards the summer and it would bring paralysed people to come in and work alongside Mark in research. It’ll be the first time in the world that it’ll be done, and it just happens to be done in Dublin. ”
Her work with Pollock is inspiring, and something that drives her on in her own sport. And every last shred of inspiration will be welcomed to the Dublin setup this year.
First up in the Littlewoods Camogie League on Saturday is, of course Cork, and Dublin’s adopted daughter O’Donovan is relishing the challenge in Mallow.
“In previous years Cork wouldn’t have came back training as early as they have this year and I think that’s based on them losing to Kilkenny in September. They’re obviously very bruised and they want to settle a score so they’ve come back much earlier to do that.
“It’s unfortunate that they’ve decided to take the league seriously this year but that’s the nature, that’s just the serendipity and we’re really excited about meeting them at their best, because it actually means that we can judge where we are.
“You have to be honest with yourself. There’s no point in going out early and meeting half a team and then come championship, thinking that we’re much further ahead than we are. We’re going to be meeting a Cork team who are ready to go, and ready to win a National League, so we’ll be able to gauge where we are depending on how we do against them.
You’re either doing really well, or you’re not up to the mark. And if you’re not up to the mark, you’ve four months to rectify that come championship.
“From our point of view, we have 11 college players so they’re all playing Ashbourne Cup. They’ve been in there for the last two months. Some of them won’t be ready for us until championship and that’s what we have to look at.”
O’Donovan is glad that her days of splitting herself between different sports and teams are over however, and is ready to put everything into her newfound county this year.
She says it simply: “One team, one focus.”
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So let’s get us get this… Every Galway and Mayo fan are going down the one road to a match…
On top of that the traffic for the Irish Open will also be going on as Ennis is the where the Park and Ride is going from.
Seriously could Galway and Mayo just use there home and away agreement… Galway was next due and next time it would be Mayo… This is just embarrassing…
@Cowboy Paddy: should have been played on Hyde park roscommon
@@at: Hyde is not big enough to maximise the cash at the gate and lets be honest thats the first, last, and only consideration for any GAA fixture location.
@@at: happy with Limerick . Mayo have bad memories of that ground . Hopefully we can give them another nightmare
@Cowboy Paddy: Whats embarrassing is the notion that our infrastructure can’t handle two sporting events 50 miles apart and can’t handle 30,000 fans going down a motorway between our 3rd and 4th biggest cities.
@Finnster: because it’s only down the road for ye
@According to Di Marzio: The Motorway will be fine, I was on the M4/6 two years ago when Roscommon played Mayo, and Galway played Kerry in the quarter finals on the same day in Croker. It was very busy, but nothing compared to the 3 land M50 on a regular rush hour.
@Cowboy Paddy: however bad getting to limerick will be, nothing is as bad as getting in and out of Salthill for a game
@Cowboy Paddy: motorway all the way from tuam lad. Traffic would be 10 times worse if it was in castlebar or Salthill. Limerick is well used to these events with the likes of Munster and limerick gaa. It will be the finest
@According to Di Marzio: plus let’s be honest, nobody outside Roscommon wants to be going to Hyde Park. Traffic in the town would be ridiculous not to mention the vast amount of supporters who’d miss out due to its capacity restrictions
@According to Di Marzio: exactly
@Anthony: Hyde Park holds 25k (since the upgrade), just under 19k people attended Mayo v Armagh at the weekend, so capacity wise, there probably wouldn’t have been an issue.
@stephen keane: Galway borders Mayo , Kilmaine , Ballinrobe , Claremorris areas are all as close if not closer than parts of Connemara and Clifden. So it’s fair on both sides . One of us is going to have a long sad drive back home though after the game ; )
@Do the Bort man: don’t put a damper on the Mayo ego and how they’ll be bringing 35,000 fans to Limerick – all pure mad of course!
@Cowboy Paddy: it’s ok, there’s a motorway!! They built one sometime ago!!
@Anthony: motorway all the way from tuam alright. But what happens when everyone trys to use the same exits into limerick?
@Finnster: I hope so but the way we have been playing it’s hard to see it. We have played 2 mediocre teams and one average team so far and haven’t even remotely impressed. That type of form isn’t good.
@Cowboy Paddy: Has to be neutral venue for a game of this magnitude. Limerick is only down the road. You have a strange idea of what the word ‘embarrassing’ means.
@Finnster: they played us in the Gaelic Grounds last year and gave us a predictable walloping Finnster so there most recent memory is positive.
@mike Kennedy: true , forgot about that
@Tony Boyle: they are really going to have to step it up . The second half in the Connacht Final was dire
@Cryptoalcho: do a bit of research before you leave. There are lots of different exits you can take. Stadium is well served and more accessible than most I think.
“Capacity of 43k”. There was 44k at it yesterday. Funny that.
One game on RTÉ over the weekend. Sad !
@Nightowl: money hungry GAA – madness having the game in Limerick
Can we assume that Kerry vs Galway/Mayo will be on Sunday 14th July? (as the winner of Meath/Clare will be entitled to a 7 day turnaround in the Group’s other match).
It’s a complete joke that the GAA cannot tell us exactly what dates matches of this scale are being held until 6 days prior to the match itself.
I wonder what the attendance will be? Works carried out at Dr Hyde park has increased its capacity to 25,000 people. Surely that would have been enough, and closer for both the teams and supporters.
Ahh The sports grounds…
Tuam or Nowhere
According to this article both Mayo & Galway gaa agreed to the venue. Its their own county boards’ fault. There is also a big tiddly winks blitz on in Limerick, oh the mayhem.
@The don: Surprised Mayo agreed considering Limerick is closer to Galway
Really daft that two Connacht counties has to play a championship match in Munster. Both could have come together and agreed on a home venue like the agreement in place for Connnacht championship games. Hyde park was more than capable of hosting the expected crowd of 18 to 20k matter of fact there was 24k at the Connacht final in 2015 but GAA politics tells us other wise now.
Should be played in Dr Hyde Park. 8000 capacity wasnt an issue last year in Newbridge. Its down to greed. 7pm throw in as well. Sky dictates the starting times.
What a joke ,.
Surely there wont be anything more than 20k-25k max at Mayo-Galway game? Hyde Park would have been sufficient.
But sure the Gaelic Grounds and the throw-in time gives Mayo fans another reason to whinge, so everyone happy all round then.