Veteran Niamh Dwyer proves once again that experience and craft beats youth most of the time

Watching Niamh Dwyer in action in this NICC National Cup final was a great learning experience.  I deliberately set my sights on her once she stepped on to the floor with just over five minutes remaining in the opening quarter.  The score was seven all and the game was yet to take off.  Both teams were finding their way into this final.

But that is not important for now.

Dwyer is a legend of this sport.  She has been there and done that over the past 25 years.  

She has won more league titles, cup titles, MVP awards than most other people to have played the game. She has played college and professional basketball at the highest level possible.

She has represented Ireland as a player and a coach with distinction.

She has been a leader of people all her life.  Her team mates, the players she coaches at academy, local, national and international level have all benefitted from her coaching, teaching and her understanding of the game.

She continues to lead by example today.  That is who she is.  A role model, a wife, a mother, a team mate, a coach, a friend and still at the end of it all - a great basketball player with a basketball intelligence that is unsurpassed.

Her performance in the NICC final was incredible.  While the legs may not be as quick or nimble as she once was, the brain is sharper than ever.  Her ability to score the big baskets when the game is on the line still remains as good as it ever was.

She understands her role perfectly.

A quiet word, a gesture, a wink or an acknowledgement is sometimes all that is needed to restore calm or instill confidence, but rest assured when a kick in the back side is needed, you will get it from her.

Niamh knows what needs to be done to win.  She came into the final averaging 14 points per game playing close to 25 minutes out of the 40. On Saturday she played 27 minutes, hit 21 points, but it was when she scored them that mattered.

In the second half with the game on the line.

That's what winners do.  She hit 10 in the vital third quarter leading Mathew's 16-8 charge which turned this final on its head.  In the fourth she hit another eight including a massive three pointer with just over 90 seconds on the clock to give Mathew's a 54-49 lead.

That shot broke Liffey Celtics hearts and lifted the roof off the National Basketball Arena.

Fittingly, she also hit the final basket of the game to seal the seven point win and her MVP performance.

What made it more pleasing for Dwyer was this was done at a time when no one, other than herself, her coach Ger Gibbons and her family probably expected it from her, and it was done in front of her family, her sister Grainne, who cheered on her every move, her niece Frankie Desmond and her children Reece and Eden.

To have all those that matter to her present to share in this moment made it all more worthwhile for Dwyer.

She may have won more significant cups and titles before, but this one was special - extra special even for Dwyer.