Roisin Rodgers on the long journey to Croke Park

Roisin Rodgers knows all about taking the long road.

It was, as she recalls, ‘one of those cold February mornings’ in 2019.

The Donegal senior ladies were training in Letterkenny and a 9am start meant an early rise for Rodgers.

The absence of a lift meant the alarm call was even earlier for Rodgers, then just 17 and without a driving licence.

The clock rang at 4.30am and Rodgers walked for two hours to get a bus in Dunlewey just after 6.30am.

Many would’ve made an excuse.

Not so Rodgers, who has since made a place in the Donegal defence her own and is set to face Meath in Sunday’s Lidl Ladies NFL Division 1 final at Croke Park.

“I was only young and new in the squad so I didn’t want to make a bad impression,” Rodgers says.

“I just wanted to be there. I didn’t want to not make it just because I had no lift.

“For me, it would have felt like missing more than one session. I couldn’t miss. I’d have been missing training, missing tactics, missing gym, different stuff.

“Whatever was done had to be done. I was just looking forward to playing - and I’d have done anything to play.”

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Rodgers made little fuss about her trek.

At a gym session later that day, the cat was out of the bag.

Even now, three years on and an established member of the squad, Rodgers almost shrugs her shoulders at the voyage.

“I had my warm-up done when I got there!

“When I look back now, I’m happy I did stuff like that. I’ve been lucky in the League this year to start and get in against the big teams. All the work everyone puts in through those morning session, when it’s pouring from the heavens, stands to us.

“Definitely there are times when you are wrecked on the pitch, but you put the work in to finish it out.”

She drives now.

A second year student at IT Sligo, where she studies health science and physical activity, Rodgers makes the journey twice a week for training. Amy Boyle-Carr and Niamh Boyle join her on the trip. The company certainly makes the mileage feel shorter.

Rodgers won an Ulster under-16 title with Donegal in 2018. A year later, she was still on the minor squad when Maxi Curran put the call in.

“It was daunting walking into that dressing room.

“I remember first walking in - and I was playing with the minors at the time - and seeing Karen Guthrie, Geraldine McLaughlin, Niamh Hegarty, seeing almost heroes who I had watched playing for Donegal. Now, I was sitting in the same dressing room and playing on the same pitch as them. Being a team-mate felt like a strange experience at the start. I do count my blessings to play with them. It has been a crazy couple of years.

“We’re all equals on the pitch. You do have to compose yourself when you’re out on the pitch and understand that they want you to step up and be another person for them to look to. We are individual players, but we have to come together as a team. When we’re on that pitch, we have to be as one for the whole game.”

Croke Park awaits on Sunday as Donegal go up against Meath, the reigning All-Ireland champions.

Before boarding the bus, Rodgers will spend a couple of hours on a surf board on the Atlantic’s waters just off Carrickfinn beach.

The idea was born two summers ago. Some cousins surfed and Donegal team-mates Geraldine McLaughlin and Roisin McCafferty were keen surfers.

“I just thought why don’t I get a board myself?

“It really helps me to relax coming up to big games. There is a lot of noise coming up to these big games. You see posts going up on Facebook, people are talking to you about it, but it’s great to just zone out.

“Out there, it’s just me and the water. I don’t have to think about anything. Carrickfinn beach is just a stone’s throw from the house. I’ll throw the board down and just have a couple of hours to myself.”

She was five years old when she first lifted a Gaelic football.

Donal Sharkey was her first coach at Naomh Muire. She still thinks of those innocent days at The Banks.

“I remember playing when Donal was the coach. I always think about those years, playing without a care in the world, when I feel in doubt sometimes. I remember why I play and how much I love it.”

In 2019, Rodgers won a Donegal JFC title with Naomh Muire and they went all the way to an Ulster final.

Their journey ended with a final defeat by Edendork.

“That was one of my favourite years,” Rodgers enthuses. “We have really progressed in the club in the last few years. We have come on leaps and bounds.

“That year before Covid, 2019, we won the county final, we won the Gaeltacht too. It was tough, but it was a brilliant year. Some years, you’d be down numbers with girls away at college, or away somewhere, and maybe you’re not able to make up the numbers.

“We’re great now that we’re getting girls back. There’s nothing like playing with your friends, the people you grew up with. I always think they’re the people who have got me to being on the Donegal squad.”

A semi-final win over Dublin a fortnight ago booked Donegal’s passage to the final.

Emma McCrory and Yvonne Bonner scored a pair of late goals in Clones to give Donegal a 2-8 to 1-10 win.

“The League has been great for players to get a chance, the likes of myself who is coming up. It’s great experience for the Championship.”

Donegal ended 2021 with pangs of regret after a 2-12 to 2-7 loss to Dublin in an All-Ireland quarter-final. The Ulster title went Armagh’s way, the Orchard beating Donegal by a point, 3-12 to 3-11, in the final.

“Last year definitely has fed into this,” Rodgers says. “That gave fuel to the fire.

“We know ourselves that we told ourselves short, but we know that we’re one of the top teams. We have a great opportunity now to play another top team and it’s great to have the challenge of playing Meath; they’re top of the table act the minute.”

Croke Park, the GAA’s grand old theatre, awaits.

Rodgers has been a fan at Croke Park, but never a player. For most of the Donegal dressing room, the same will be true.

“It’s an experience we’re really looking forward to - the biggest stadium we’ll ever get to play in. It’s not often we get there.”