A group of women who set up a Gaelic football team after they kept meeting each other as they dropped off their children at training are set to appear at half time at the Women’s All-Ireland football final in Croke Park on Sunday.
The Meela Moos ladies team in Ahiohill village in West Cork, formed in August of last year, is comprised of women of all ages and abilities.
Team member Gwen Crowley says 42 people turned up for their first training session in the Keelnameela club.
“It is every age and every ability. When I started I thought ‘oh God no. I am fifty. I have never played football in my life. But I thought ‘look I will go for a few weeks and see.’ I went for the football but I stayed for the fun. We just had such fun.
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“If you can’t play at all or you are brilliant it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what age you are. Whoever you are next to on the pitch you just have a chat and a laugh with. Even when you are warming up you are having a chat and a skit with whoever is beside you.”
Their highlights have included participating in the Munster Blitz in Mallow, she added.
“600 women from all over Munster in the Gaelic4Mothers & teams. It was great.
“I have three kids and I found I was spending half my life around pitches with their training. And its kind of my time now. I used to say to the kids that I was going training and they would laugh but now they don’t laugh any more. All the kids think it is amazing. I can lap the pitch now no problem. As I have asthma I used to be wheezing. You get more fit without even really knowing it.”
The team recently got involved in a social media campaign in a bid to be chosen for the coveted slot to appear at half time in the All-Ireland final.
Stealing some farmyard cow toys from a child of one of the players as a team mascot they got in touch with the likes of GAA commentator Marty Morrissey, former Ireland and Munster rugby player Donncha O’Callaghan and singer Nathan Carter who all recorded video shout outs to the team.
Gwen said that they were “absolutely thrilled” to be picked to line out at Croke Park during half time at the Ladies football final on Sunday afternoon when Kerry play Meath.
“There is women in their twenties. Women in their fifties. It is all the same when we are on the pitch. Only ten people can line out and there is over forty of us but we will be cheering them on from the stands. We will be shouting our heads off on the day.
“Our families thought we were mad when we did the social media campaign. I was telling my husband I needed his boardroom to record a video!
“We had a match recently and when we went out that night I felt like someone in my twenties. Mind you I felt differently the following day. It has been fantastic.”
