Echo Women in Sport award: Allie Tobin was a true leader as Cork minors powered to All-Ireland
Allie Tobin, The Echo Women in Sport monthly award winner for July at O'Donovan Rossa GAA Club, Skibbereen, with her sister Elena. Allie captained Cork to All-Ireland glory in the ZuCar minor football championship. Picture: Dan Linehan
She may only have turned 18 recently but already in sporting terms Allie Tobin has achieved so much.
The O’Donovan Rossa star captained Cork to Munster and All-Ireland minor ladies football championship glory and for that she is our July The Echo Women in Sport monthly award winner.
The tenacious fullback has a growing reputation as a top defender, and is one to watch going forward and there is a lot more to come from Allie in the years ahead.
Along with her success with Cork Allie was also part of the O’Donovan Rossa side that won Cork, Munster and All-Ireland titles in recent years.
This year the club’s rise through the ranks - from junior to senior – in three years has been remarkable and Allie, who has been part of that panel since she was 15, has played her part in that success.
Always encouraged by her parents, Derek and Marie, she has two younger sisters, Elena and Hannah, who are also defenders, and they will be looking to join her on the senior side in a few years.
Like many top-class athletes, she excels in other sports and won national championships in kickboxing when she was younger. But football took over after Covid and she is now concentrating on that and her Leaving Cert for the coming year.
Allie said that her love of football started when she was eight, when her dad brought her down to the club.
“I started at U8 with Skibb, my dad had played football for years and he started coaching me,” said Allie.
“He has coached me all the way up. He's still coaching me and I have played all the way up through the club sides. At U12 I also played in the Community Games and we managed to win the All-Ireland Community Games.
As well as her triumph with Cork Allie also enjoyed success with Skibbereen Community School.
The West Cork school won the Lidl Ladies Football All-Ireland Senior A Post-Primary Schools final in dramatic style earlier this year. With seconds to go, it looked certain that extra time would be needed to separate the sides at UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny.
But Meabh Collins had other ideas as she landed a famous winning point for Skibbereen Community School as they defeated Loreto College, Cavan, by 2-10 to 3-6, to win the All-Ireland championship for the first time.
Allie’s talents soon came to the attention of Cork and she has been involved at inter-county level ever since she was U14.
“We won the Munster championship when I was involved with the U14 Cork team, but due to covid there was no All-Ireland series that year so we couldn’t go any further.
“After that I was involved with the U16 side for two years. In my second year we managed to reach the All-Ireland final after a few tough games.
“We beat Dublin in the semi-final before facing Cavan in the final. We drew with Cavan the first day, but then in the replay they beat us by a goal I think,” said Allie.
"This year we managed to win the Munster title, beating Kerry in the final.
“It was a close first half but I think we came out after the break and upped our game and managed to get the better of them, which is never easy to do.
“But that set us up for another clash with Cavan, this time in the ZuCar All-Ireland semi-final. The memory from two years ago was still on the minds of a few of us so it was a great motivating factor as we knew this was going to be a tough game.
“They have some great footballers, but so do we and thankfully we managed to get the better of them this time.”
In the final they faced Dublin, again a team never easy to beat, but an impressive 2-3 from Kate Carey helped Cork to a 3-11 to 3-2 win.
That was a special day for Allie as she got to climb the steps as Cork captain for the second time in the season to lift a cup on behalf of her teammates.
“it was unreal, you can't put into words the feeling of going up to lift the cup, it’s just a really special feeling and one that you will never forget.”
No doubt Allie will enjoy many more great days with her club and county and hopefully will get the chance to lift a few more cups in the next few years.
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