Meabh Cahalane spoke to her brother before making camogie decision

IT wasn’t a decision she took lightly, but Meabh Cahalane is ultimately happy to be giving her full concentration to the Cork senior camogie team for 2023.

Also a gifted ladies footballer, Cahalane had juggled both codes for the previous three seasons after finding herself back on the Leeside due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Before then she was based in the Dublin office of accounting firm KPMG Ireland and while her commute was greatly reduced in recent years, playing for both of Cork’s flagship women’s sides still proved to be a major demand for Cahalane.

Additionally, Meabh has also been kept busy at club level in recent times with Éire Óg and St Finbarr’s, both enjoying productive journeys in their championships.

Although she hasn’t ruled out a return to the Cork footballers in the future, Cahalane has opted to stick with Matthew Twomey’s camogie outfit as they aim to bridge a five-year gap to their last O’Duffy Cup success.

“It was definitely a very difficult decision and probably not one that you’d want to be thinking about. You’d obviously love to continue to play both as long as you can, but with the season more condensed and I was lucky enough to be involved with both club teams late on in the season, it does take its toll,” Cahalane explained.

“You want to be going into big games fresh and you don’t want to be carrying any tiredness or fatigue. That was kind of the only reasoning. Hopefully it’s not a complete goodbye to football, but for this year anyway I’m focusing on the camogie.

“It’s definitely easier being at home and choosing the one sport. You just have that bit more time to prepare and do your extra gym sessions, extra recovery. Hopefully it all makes the difference this year, please God.” 

Despite coming to this decision herself, Cahalane did nevertheless speak to her brother Damien about his own experience with a dual dilemma. Having initially made his debut for the Cork senior hurlers in 2012, he subsequently switched to the county’s footballers the following year before trying to combine both codes in 2014.

It is understandable that he wanted to give football a go at the highest level, given his father Niall and uncle John Cleary were two-time All-Ireland champions with the same side during their own playing days. The prowess of her aunt Nollaig Cleary (a nine-time Celtic Cross winner) meant that Meabh was also drawn to the Cork ladies footballers, but the small ball game is proving to be a bigger pull for these talented siblings at the moment.

"Damien just kind of explained how the game is probably going to another level. The GAA has gone to another level in such that everyone is getting better. Everyone is getting stronger, everyone is getting faster. If you’re wanting to get to that level and above, you have no choice other than give it everything. He was great for advice, but I made my own decision." 

At the end of her debut season as a Cork camogie senior in 2015, Cahalane collected an All-Ireland medal courtesy of a 1-13 to 0-9 triumph over Galway at Croke Park. Yet the Tribeswomen have held the upper hand in their most recent championship meetings with the Leesiders.

Additionally, the westerners followed up a group stage victory against Cork in this year’s National Camogie League with a win at the expense of the same opposition in their Division 1 decider showdown at Croke Park on April 16.

The two teams have become familiar foes by this point and will lock horns once again at Kenny Park in Athenry this coming Saturday in Group One of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship. While a revamped format for this year’s competition offers no guarantee that a group winner will progress straight to a semi-final, as was the case in the past, Cahalane and Cork will undoubtedly be treating their forthcoming trip to Galway (not to mention subsequent encounters against Down and Clare) with the utmost importance.

“We know each other well at this stage, but we’re under no illusions going up to Galway and we know what they’re going to bring. It’s going to be a really physical game and we’ll just have to adapt to that. Learn what we can from the league and even from playing them the last day in the league final."