SIX MONTHS AFTER becoming a mother for the first time, Roscommon Ladies footballer Alice Kelly has committed to the inter-county team once again.
Last August, baby girl Neala Dowd was born, but with a club championship up for grabs, there was no slowing Alice down.
Five weeks after giving birth, mother and daughter togged out for the day as Kilbride won a fifth county title in a row, but the turn of the new year saw her trade that ceremonial event for a full-blooded return to the top of the game.
New Roscommon manager Diane O’Hora is well-versed in what it takes to end the year with silverware from her playing days with Mayo, and taking charge of a team with three consecutive TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Semi-final losses suggests much of the groundwork is in place. Coaxing Kelly back could be the secret ingredient.
“I was a bit apprehensive about going back playing until Diane rang me. She spoke with me before I committed to anything,” said 30-year-old Kelly.
“I had spoken about it with my husband, Kieran, and he is very supportive. He bought me a new pair of football boots for my Christmas present just to show support for me to go back and give it a go.
“Then my father said to me: ‘You won’t be playing forever Alice; play while you can and go for it’. They were all there to encourage me.
“Clare Noone is part of Diane’s management team, and she said her teenage daughter would be more than happy to mind Neala at training any time I needed.
“That was the real turning point in my decision, seeing how supportive everyone was from the get-go. I knew I’d be able to manage it, that they would help me and they would be understanding that maybe I mightn’t be able to make every training from time to time.”
While maintaining a level of fitness throughout her pregnancy, the notion of putting on the training gear didn’t take long to reappear for Alice after she gave birth. By the start of September she had dipped her toe in with Kilbride, and despite feeling the effects on her first day back, she is keen to show pregnancy does not mean the end of a sporting path.
“Sometimes I think I am a bit crazy trying to do it, but I want to give it a go. I want to show it to myself and others that it can be done, that you don’t have to give up everything once you have a child. I want to see if I can do it for myself, see if I can get back to that level again.
“I went back training a week before the county final. I was probably mad in the head I think. It was just because it was such a special occasion, I wanted to be part of it. I was kind of shaky at the start. I got a great welcome from the girls and I took it easy enough.
“I was a bit aware going back into contact though. After nine months of carrying a baby you are very conscious of protecting her, and then all of a sudden the baby is here and you don’t need to protect her like that. That was a bit strange. But after one or two trainings I got back into the swing of things.”
Alice has been working with Westmeath-based physiotherapist Eimear Fox since November and that combination of guidance and a simple training plan has her ready to make her comeback.
“Coming back from having a baby, I suppose it’s really like rehabbing from an injury. You have to do it right. I was really glad I did that, just for peace of mind, just to build myself back up in the right way.”
The long nights and days of being a new parent have coincided with a similar pattern for everyone else in lockdown over the winter, but Alice says time has flown by for her new family, especially with husband Kieran – a pilot by trade – grounded more often than before.
However, she says lockdown has had major downsides for her family too as Neala’s grandparents, uncles and aunts are missing out.
“We’re living here in Moate, but we still don’t really know anyone around, and that has been challenging. She is the first grandchild on both sides and they’re all mad to see her again.
“I have a sister a pharmacist in Dublin and she has been doing testing for Covid, so the priority has to be to keep our baby safe as much as possible.
“And then my father actually had a stroke in December, just after Christmas. He was in hospital for a month. We couldn’t even visit him. I’m a speech therapist and I’m on maternity leave. I felt that I could have helped him if I could have gone in. That was hard.
“Thankfully, he’s home now and doing well, but at the same time, we can’t go down and help as much as we’d like. It’s the same for a lot of people; people are living away from home and find it challenging. We spend as much time as we can on the family WhatsApp group, but it’s not the same as going for a visit.”
Like the rest of her teammates, Kelly has ramped up her training in recent weeks as the Roscommon panel aims to be ready to give 2021 a real shot when collective training resumes.
This week she’ll pull on the runners to make sure she is ready for the panel’s 5km challenge on Easter weekend, while she says the players are hugely impressed with the 100km challenge being undertaken by the Roscommon management and the Roscommon County Board.
“Diane and the management team are doing it, Brendan Cregg, our chairperson, is doing it, so is Sandra Shanagher and a few more, which is brilliant to see. These things are usually left to the players, but they are taking it on themselves, which is very impressive.
“They are looking for donations and hopefully people can help them out. It’s a great show of support and says that they really want the best for the players.
“We got off lightly – the players and our friends are doing the 5k challenge, so hopefully we can all do our small bit for the training fund.
“Diane is leaving no stone unturned. She’s started as she means to go on – all guns blazing. She has a good strong management team around her too and that is giving us the best opportunity to succeed.”
Not a great match but well done Kerry. They did the necessary.
Thank god the Mcguiness/Harte brand of puke football lost yesterday. It’s killing the game as a spectacle.
It was replaced by the most cynical brand of the game carried out by Kerry. 10 fouls to 1 in Kerry’s favour in the first half. Kerry were the offenders yesterday and made the game the worst final in living memory
The reason Donegal’s ‘style’ is so destructive is that opponents feel they have to match it in order to beat it, creating the kind of awful spectacle we saw yesterday. The Dublin game showed that playing good football against Donegal’s ‘system’ is at best risky. Kerry did the right thing, including playing keep ball in the final stages, notwithstanding the crazy goal chace they allowed Donegal to get in the final moments.
A well deserved win and everyone who likes to watch the game should be relieved the team trying to play a bit of football came through in the end.
So we praise kerry for playing negative football like ulster teams have been accused and lambasted for in years gone by but we dont praise donegal for their ‘system’ which completely hammered dublin.. or the way tyrone played in years gone by beating this wonderful majestic kerry team in all ireland semi amd finals! Funny that eh..
You seem to be suggesting there’s some kind of hypocrisy at play, but none is evident, maybe you could outline it?
Some football actually broke out in the semi-final. Dublin trashed Donegal in the first 20 minutes and Donegal had to come out and play. When they did that, Dublin looked very exposed. Dublin made Donegal’s wrecking tactics look okay because, unlike Kerry, Dublin responded by playing football. Because Kerry matched Donegal’s tactics yesteray, it was particularly dour. The common denominator in all this is Donegal. You take Donegal out and you have great football. Kerry v Mayo = too brilliant games, Dublin v Kerry last year = one of the best games every played in Croker.
Hypocrisy among the southern media/supporters regarding puke/horrible football eminating from the north and nowhere else? Never… theres never been negative tactics used by southern teams unless they were made to do it by the dirty northerners if you believe what you read or hear
You appear to have a persecution complex.
What do you dispute in what I’ve written above? Are you suggesting these wrecking tactics don’t orginiate in Ulster?
Look, teams can play however they like within the rules, but let’s not pretend it is anything to watch for spectators. It’s negative, ugly, and boring to watch. Is it not?
I was at the dublin v kerry game last summer. An awesome display of football. Yesterday made me want to cry. The better the mcguinness and hartes of this world are no longer involved the better
Wrecking tactics? Never heard of these… i remember tyrone v meath quite a few years back when we were absolutely beaten and battered off the ball at every opportunity and there wasnt the cry of ‘horrible tactics’ etc, the cry was we need to man up and become more physical and in your face.. tyrone learned from games like those and changed their game! Peter canavan, geard cavlan and eoin mulligan, true wrecking defensive legends!
I see you’re studiously avoiding the central question! :)
No question that Canavan, Mulligan et al. are absolute legends of the game. Nobody’s disputing that. During the latter period of Tyrone’s successful run they were playing fantastic football, scoring some ridiclous scores, and entertaining many a crowd.
Yesterday, Donegal socred 2 points from play in the first half, and tried their dammdest to stop a game of football breaking out. This is a whole other plantet in terms of negativity. Is it not?
2 points from play and a handful from frees.. id put that down to good defending surely? You’re doing a disservice to kerrys defence there. . Wasnt a great game but not every single game is going to be free flowing and scoring is it..
Meath have a tradition of negativity, but in a different way
Were you watching the same game Petr, kerry continually fouled during the game. They have two wing forwards who can’t/ don’t want to play the game. O’brien should have been sent off in first 20 minutes
I note that Pat Spillane warmly embraced “puke football” when delivered by his native county!
Fighting puke with puke out of necessity.
There was no puke football against Cork or Mayo!
Watching Donegal is like watching sh*t on a stick.
No puke football needed against Mayo..they play football the way it should be played..like Dublin really..just unlucky this year, let down by the most incompetent ref that ever has been.
Mayo do play good football but they can’t blame to ref. No more excuese from Mayo, they need to stand up and win.
Nor against dublin
Totally agree with Petr. Mayo are a great team and the two tough tests they gave Kerry may well have made the difference in the final, but don’t stoop to blaming the ref – it does Mayo a disservice.
Agreed. The likes of Killian O’Connor will ensure Mayo win it before very long.
Did you watch the Cork game? Maybe it didn’t look like puke because Cork were too naive to put men behind the ball but Kerry had only 2 men in the Cork half for the majority of that match – O’Donoghue and Geaney. Everyone else stayed back. If you were at the game it was very obvious.
Painful to watch..but hopefully the hurling replay will erase the memory…
Just witnessed two special buses drive by in Denny Street Tralee. That says it all. Well done boys! Ciarraí Abú!
A sad day for GAA yesterday. Gamesmanship,unsporting behaviour from Kerry
players and supporters, off the ball tactics,particularly against Murphy.
Kerry were one dimensional. Their ” system” was to hoof it into Donaghy.
This must be the poorest team to win Sam in twenty years !
I’ll give you 2/10 for that one Michael
Well done Kerry on winning both senior and minor titles.A great honour for the Dr Crokes club to captain Kerry.The last Dr Crokes player to captain Kerry was the famous Dick Fitzgerald a hundred years ago.Well done to all involved.
Bloody hell, I’m sick of the puritanical, hypocritical bulls**t that people have been spouting the last 2 days about so called puke football. The fact is, any team plays to its strenghts, doing otherwise is the definition of stupidity. Tyrone’s success in the 00s was based on a defensive style as they lacked the attacking options enjoyed by the likes of Kerry (Canavan et al aside), but had numerous abrasive defenders. In fact, it’s often forgotten that Kerry adopted similar tactics during Tyrone’s dominant period which bore some fruit.
McGuiness, like him or loathe him, took a team of largely average players and brought them an all ireland and another final appearance, display clear progression from all out defence to a counter attacking side. It’s also convenient to ignore the fact that Donegal had the highest scoring average of the 2012 championship, somewhere in the region of 18 points per match, put up 15 scores in the Ulster final this year and put 3-14 on the unbackable favourite in the semi.
Fact is that every team plays to win, Kerry yesterday were evidence of that, good value for the win most definitely but proof positive that negative tactics are far from the sole preserve of Northern teams.
Kerry had to play negative to counter Donegal. When they play the likes of Mayo or Dublin it’s actually worth watching, which is handy for those who watch the game.
So Kerry had to play a defensive style but you’d much rather prefer if Donegal played a style that would get them hockied? Sunday wasn’t the first time Kerry have employed the blanket defence when it suited them.
The fact is that regardless of system, a game is only boring when teams neglect to score or try and score, and at the lower levels every year produces matches where both sides try not to lose. Someone the understands the game would realise that every match isn’t Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, the Dublin vs Kerry semi last year, while very entertaining was a clash of 2 teams not bothering to defend.
The system employed by McGuiness while predicated on defence and work rate, generates excitement too with the quick turn from defence to attack and counter attacking from the half back line.
Hey Kerry footballers make sure you keep Sam clean down in the bog of Kerry !!!!!!!!!
We bulk buy the Mr Sheen down here boy!
Very nice keep it clean for the dubs next year
To Any of the Kerry supporters on their way home there is club football championship on in Kilkenny this evening if ye wanna see a decent game played as the good lord intended
I wouldn’t call the most popular tourist destination and home of tourism a ‘bog’…not from kerry myself but I’m sure if u were to kerry you’d realise
Not one player there yesterday would lace Johnny Doyles boots. That Kerry tramp that kicked away the ball at the end shouldn’t be let onto a football pitch again.
They wouldn’t have to, johnny would be doing it for them.
What was the foul count again ?
Add the incentive to the attacking team . Make goals 5 points or have certain lines which only 1 or 2 forwards can go back past . Teams wont change unless their odds of winning will increase
We’ll said Michael Eden, Kerry are dirty winners