KAYLEIGH CRONIN’S SUMMER was over in terms of athletics.

She had injured her shoulder, and couldn’t throw. A third year student on a sports scholarship in DCU at the time, discus had been her speciality.

She was home in Kerry for the summer, and decided to go along to club football training for the first time in years.

“The craic was something else,” Cronin remembers. “l had missed it so much.

“And I said, ‘If this is as far as I ever go, I’m actually happy out.’”

It was a big difference to how she had felt at athletics.

Her relationship with the sport was strained, and a new lease of life came from elsewhere at this crucial juncture in her early twenties.

“The enjoyment just wasn’t really there anymore,” Cronin tells The 42. “It was that slog of getting up in the morning, going training yourself, nobody else there. Having to walk around the place, collect your discs, come back. Same thing again that evening.

“Even going to competitions…the grá wasn’t there.

“Literally the first night up training above in Crokes’ top field, passing around, I was like, ‘Sure I’m 10 times happier here!’ So that was the decision kind of made then.

“I remember that winter trying to go back to athletics and saying, ‘Nah.’ I’d much rather be at a lower level, but doing something I enjoy. But that higher level came calling and I wasn’t long back into the hard work.”

Cronin was 12 or 13 when she stepped away from football. Demands were increasing, her body was already beginning to struggle at that young age. A decision had to be made. 

“Looking back, if I could change it, I would, but at the same time, I actually think some of my best attributes in football are actually from the athletics side of it.”

A year or so after that first training back, Cronin was called up to the Kerry senior set-up by Donal Doherty. “There was a good bit of conditioning to do at that stage having been out for the bones of eight years! But we’re slowly getting there.”

Slowly getting there, she says.

Cronin is now one of the best defenders in the country.

The 2022 All-Star full-back has played a key role in the Kingdom’s rise in recent seasons. She’s towering and tenacious, yet versatile and athletic. A tight marker, but a strong ball carrier and playmaker. She has even had a stint in goals at senior inter-county level.

Little did Cronin know she’d have played in back-to-back All-Ireland senior finals, won Division 1 and Division 2 league titles and an All-Star award a few short years back.

“You can be sure of it! The first year was a tough, tough slog to be fair. The energy in the group and stuff, it was tough. Driving to training, you were saying, ‘Ah, God above, like.’ Going to games, you didn’t even necessarily have full confidence.

“Once the boys [joint-managers Declan Quill and Darragh Long] came on board, it changed everything to be honest. Look, we’ve always had players. Kerry has always produced them. But it’s about getting a group that can gel together and the right system to play to allow people to express themselves.

“We’ve come a long way. We’re nearly there. One last push. These little one percenters.”

Cronin (second from right) with Danielle Caldwell, Jennifer Dunne, Mary Kate Lynch and Aimee Mackin at a recent STATSports event. STATSports. STATSports.

Summer 2023 ended on a gut-wrenching note. A second All-Ireland final defeat in-a-row, but this one cut far deeper. Cronin can’t put her finger on exactly why.

They were perhaps “naive” the previous July. Meath had been there, done that, whereas Kerry were “nearly starstruck” amidst the unprecedented noise and preparation.

“We kind of put that one down to that bit of inexperience, and we had told ourselves the next year, if we get there, we’ll know what to do and it will just be a case of go out and play your football.

Unfortunately, we didn’t go out and play our football. We gave 30 minutes of it, but the first 30, we left behind us.

“I’ve never in my life experienced anything like the dressing room after that Dublin game, and hopefully, touch wood, I never will.

“But look, it was about sticking together more than anything really. We had good craic the week after, drowning our misery around the county, but hoping now that next year it will be a tour of victory instead of a tour of doom.”

A dressing room visitor from behind enemy lines in Croke Park ultimately sent them on their way, the personal trainer reveals.

“Mick [Bohan] came into the dressing room after the Dublin game last year and spoke to us. They obviosusly had experience of losing three in-a-row before their four in-a-row. Those girls know what it feels like more than anyone.

“He came in, he spoke to us and what he said hit home for a lot of us. Maybe we didn’t realise it at the time, it was too raw then but thinking about it over the next couple of weeks… he was basically telling us don’t give up.”

That, they haven’t. Quill and Long vowed to return, and the core group followed suit.

They stuck together as one and “everybody is still as hungry as ever,” Cronin assures.

They have a 100% record thus far as they look to defend their Division 1 league crown, with Mayo up next in Killarney this afternoon.

And then it’s onto The Big One.

“We’re back again, fear of us. Glutton for punishment at this stage now!

“But hoping we can find that extra one or 2% that hopefully if we do get to the day again, we won’t make the same mistakes again.”

Kayleigh Cronin was speaking at a STATSports event on technology in Ladies Gaelic football. Clubs can enter a competition to win access to their cutting-edge GPS technology here.