McLaughlin: 'It’ll be hard and we could see a domino effect of departures'

When Val Daly fluffed a shot at a point in the 1983 All-Ireland final against Donegal and the ball flew into the net at Hill 16 in the baking sunshine to send Galway to the final, Brian McEniff said for years he struggled to fathom exactly what had just happened.

The Donegal manager, a leading hotelier by trade, would never be short of a bedroom but following that heartbreaking 1-12 to 1-11 loss, he sat on a park bench in Rathmines, alone, all night long staring into the darkness wondering would Donegal ever get to an All-Ireland final.

Nicole McLaughlin wasn’t even near born the day Donegal lost that 1983 semi-final and chances are she and teammates have never heard the story. But as they trundled through the inner shell of Croke Park following their 0-12 to 1-7 defeat to the reigning champions in the TG4 Ladies All-Ireland SFC semi-final, they passed by some of the Meath players who had beaten them at the post, getting almost apologetic, sympathetic nods.

“Depressed,” was the one-word answer one of the Donegal players gave when asked how she was as she walked by. This may have been only the second All-Ireland SFC semi-final ever for Donegal, who have now lost three finals in the last 12 months - two Ulsters and a Division 1 decider - yet it was the toughest chapter to write in the story of so near, and yet …

“We were lucky,” Eamonn Murray, the Meath manager, had declared just minutes beforehand as he puffed his cheeks in relief in the auditorium where the post-match interviews were heard. McLaughlin admitted the “bounce of a ball” theory wasn’t far off the mark if a one-sentence summary was required to put the two-point loss into context. But that simplification made it no easier.

“Very disappointed,” she said solemnly. “That game was there to take. We were so close, losing by two points to a brilliant team who are All-Ireland champions and - no disrespect to Kerry here - are expected to go on and win it again. These losses in big games just seem to happen too often for us. It’s so hard to take.”

Meath, driven on by exceptional Emma Duggan, seized the mantle when the game could’ve gone either way, with the 20-year-old from Dunboyne kicking her side’s last three points at that vital stage in the match where heroes are made. Mary Kate Lynch then cleared one off the line from Yvonne Bonner and Meath goalkeeper Monica McGuirk made her second notable save of the contest, to keep out a Karen Guthrie effort.

Some in the Donegal camp felt they didn’t get the occasional call from Shane Curley, although McLaughlin was keen not to lay the blame at the referee’s door, while only one of four Donegal efforts at points that clipped the upright went over, and Niamh McLaughlin’s stinger in the first half clattered the crossbar and went over, when it might’ve gone under. Donegal goalkeeper Roisin McCafferty, Nicole McLaughlin’s Termon teammate, wasn’t called into serious action once.

“McCaff didn’t seem to have a save to make, while Monica seemed very busy,” McLaughlin added. “Some go in the net and some don’t and we’re just unfortunate they didn’t. That’s just football and that’s just the way things go. There’s ifs and buts now but we will never know. We didn’t get there. That’s the bottom line”.

Donegal, who as recently in the 3-17 to 2-19 extra-time loss to Armagh in the Ulster final eight weeks ago, have often been called reckless, although on Saturday at Croke Park their first half was conducted with the same assuredness to lead by three points, as they had a week beforehand in toppling Dublin at Carrick-on-Shannon. 

Donegal, late in the half, had sneaked to that margin when faced with Dublin, whilst on Saturday the consensus at the tea break was that three was the very least they deserved. Last week, Dublin’s Lyndsey Davey had kicked a point to reply seconds in into part two, although it turned out to be a last action before a three-goal assault from Donegal, who won 3-7 to 1-7.

This week, Meath’s last first half score was one almost overlooked in the postmortems, an exceptional point from Orlaigh Lally. Murray noted afterwards that his players met among themselves initially at half-time as they knew what was required. Donegal knew what was coming. 

Meath reeled off six points in succession into the Davin Stand. Donegal, though, pulled themselves back level and Vikki Wall was sin-binned just shy of the 50-minute mark for a challenge on McLaughlin.

“At half-time we knew what was coming,” Donegal midfielder McLaughlin confirmed. “They were going to come at us with the big drive and they did. We had to steady the ship which we did eventually, after the first five or 10 minutes when they had the purple patch. We got level again and then it was just a case of a couple of balls that didn’t go our way. 

Heartbroken Donegal miss out as Duggan drives Meath onto All-Ireland final

Maxi Curran's side left Croke Park with a lingering thought of what might been as All-Ireland champions Meath showed their strength in the last 10 minutes to set up the chance to defend their crown against Kerry later this month

“That’s where their experience showed, in that last 10 minutes. We tried to get through. It certainly wasn’t for the lack of trying. There were a couple of decisions that maybe didn’t go our way. Maybe if they went our way it would be a different story, but that’s football. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t.”

Ten years ago next month, with the county surfing the waves of the metamorphic turnaround of Jim McGuinness’s Donegal side, on the weekend they produced one of their best ever performances to defeat Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final the plight of the ladies was barely considered in a stirring juxtaposition.

In their All-Ireland quarter-final the day beforehand, at Roscommon’s Hyde Park, a Donegal side that included Guthrie and Emer Gallagher got a hiding, obliterated 8-27 to 0-2, which, to save some quick maths, is a difference of 49 points. 

With the county board's appeal for a date change overlooked, on The Sunday Game, who weren't noted for their thoughts or highlights of ladies football, it was suggested that Donegal would never get anywhere due to their lack of commitment. The absence of the McLaughlins, Nicole and Geraldine, who were both teenagers at the time, was because of - god forbid - their attendance at their sister Lorna’s wedding. 

Two years later, with winter closing in, at Tuam Stadium in Galway,  the Termon girls who played together at the Burn Road since childhood, joined by another McLaughlin sister in Sharon, defeated Mourneabbey from Cork in an epic All-Ireland Ladies SFC Club final. Geraldine went into the final with an average of just over 15 points - 22-27 in six championship outings - and scored 3-8 in the 3-12 to 1-13 victory.

The following summer, Donegal, who had never ever won an Ulster SFC, lifted the first of four in five years and from the three they didn’t since, the decision was made not to enter in 2020 - the year of the pandemic - and they lost to other two, last year and this, by a point each time against Armagh. This year, they were Lidl Ladies NFL Division 1 finalists for the first time, also going down by two points to Meath.

A decade on from Hyde Park, Donegal stood at Croke Park wondering how they missed out on a first ever appearance in an All-Ireland final because of a bounce of a ball against a “brilliant” Meath team. It’s been some journey and last week Maxi Curran suggested there’s about 1,200 collective appearances on the panel. In all likelihood, that’s probably a conservative guesstimate.

"I think it's seven in total," Emer Gallagher said on Tuesday of the amount of current Donegal players in the 100-plus club. "As far as I know it's Yvonne, Geraldine, Karen, Niamh Hegarty, myself, Nicole and Katie Herron.”

Nicole McLauglin, who is 27 and a religion teacher at Loreto Secondary School in Letterkenny, wonders which way the road will twist now. On Monday evening she’ll probably think about the fact she’s not going to Convoy with her group of sisters, who would usually bounce in for training from all quarters of the county to get down to business, with both fun and focus.

“It’s hard to pick yourself up,” she added. “A few of us have been there 10, 11, 12 seasons. Geraldine is definitely on her 13th and Karen and Yvonne, god knows? Yvonne has been playing for Donegal seniors since 2002 - that’s 21 seasons? I  can’t speak for anyone so I really don’t know what the future will hold for Donegal. 

“Losing by two points against the current All-Ireland champions isn’t bad. But it’s still not a win. We put on a decent enough performance for the people who came up to see us and we are really grateful for all the people who support us. We can’t thank everyone enough. The support really is appreciated.”

“Whether it be the ones who travelled up today or watching at home, even those texting us good luck, we have to thank you. For the future generations I hope they keep it up because the support is very important and it keeps us all going, even 10 years later, and now you’ll still have the likes of Amy Boyle Carr, who is a brilliant player, to carry it for years to come.

“We love each other’s company. There’s good craic and good camaraderie and all that.  It’s a huge commitment. It’ll be hard going on though, and we could see a domino effect now of departures. I can’t really answer about the future. You might see one or two starting off and then …, look, we’ll see ..."

A park bench in Rathmines obviously wasn’t considered as the players, with McLaughlin bidding her farewells, began boarding the bus for home. McEniff, remember, got there in the end and when you consider the trajectory over the years of this Donegal side to Croke Park yesterday, who knows? We'll see ...