Bríd Stack in Laochra Gael spotlight after incredible career and 11 All-Ireland medals

A new TG4 Laochra Gael series starts on Thursday night, featuring Bríd Stack, an 11-time All-Ireland winner and one of Cork LGFA’s greatest players.

Stack is widely recognised as one of the Rebels' most accomplished footballers. Her illustrious playing career includes an astonishing 11 All-Ireland senior medals. Add in seven All-Stars, Player of the Match in the 2007 All-Ireland final and a professional AFLW career with the Greater Western Sydney Giants. 

Stack has been there, done that.

So, it came as a pleasant surprise when the former Rockchapel and current St Val’s player was announced as one of the eight individuals to feature in the upcoming Laochra Gael TV series.

The renowned TG4 hour-long sports production returns for its 23rd season. Directed by Aisling Ní Fhlaithearta and featuring Bríd’s husband Cárthach Keane, this Laochra Gael episode will be a must-watch. Stack’s former team-mates Angela Walsh, Norita Kelly, Valerie Mulcahy and Rena Buckley are scheduled to appear.

That’s a who’s-who of the great Cork sides that dominated the LGFA senior football championship during the mid-2000s. Under the late Éamonn Ryan, Cork won 11 All-Ireland, 10 Munster and 10 National League titles between 2005 and 2016.

Stack was an integral member of that record-breaking Rebels panel and named TG4 Senior Player’s Player of the Year in 2016. A warrior on the pitch, she marked some of the LGFA’s greatest forwards including Mayo’s Cora Staunton.

Bríd Stack was one of the 25 players to feature in my book Cork LGFA – Game of Life. An honest, open and forthright individual, it was a pleasure to recount some of the many highlights of her career including Cork’s 2007 All-Ireland final victory over Mayo.

“Sitting in the dressing room after defeating Mayo, you are just living in that moment really,” Stack said.

“You don’t think about the future or what’s to come. That year, we wanted to make sure that we established ourselves as real contenders. Until we beat Mayo, Cork was never going to be considered an established senior All-Ireland winner let alone a contender.

TRUST

“That’s why I place such huge importance on that 2007 final. For our own self-belief, we knew as long as we stuck together, trusted each other and backed one other that there wasn’t anything we couldn’t achieve.

“Maybe it took a while for everyone else outside the Cork dressing room to realise what kind of a team we were. I know that Cork didn’t win a Team of the Year award until 2014 but back then, we knew we had something good. 

That’s why it was important we all stayed together and pushed each other to keep going, keep improving and never rest.

“Good times don’t come around too often so celebrating our successes was equally important. Éamonn Ryan always encouraged us to celebrate each one of our All-Irelands. By God, we certainly did that.

“He wouldn’t see us for two months after those finals. Éamonn didn’t mind, as he said himself, about us having too much junk in the trunk or black smoke coming from our lungs when we returned every January.

“Éamonn loved the fact we all went out and celebrated together and cut loose. He was often with us singing songs and we lived for those moments.” 

Trust and a team ethic were two of the key elements to Éamonn Ryan and Cork’s successes during that dominant era.

“I am fully aware of how privileged we were to be part of that Cork setup,” Stack added.

It could very easily have been a team that won one All-Ireland and was never heard of again. All the right clientele were there for Cork to be successful.

“The biggest thing, for me, is the pure trust that was in that Cork team. It is like nothing I have ever experienced before. Trust is an expectation of what you are going to get and the result of something happening on a consistent and continuous basis. It is extremely hard to gain it and very quickly lost as well.

“The collective trust that is needed for a team is also something that is very difficult to navigate. That’s why Mary Collins and Éamonn Ryan were so vital in navigating that trust.” 

The new series of Laochra Gael begins on Thursday, January 23. Stack’s episode is scheduled to air on Thursday, February 27.