A dream come true for Leitrim captain Michelle Guckian

From struggling to find the words to capture what she was feeling after Leitrim’s dramatic TG4 LGFA All-Ireland IFC victory over Wexford to a defiant “Tyrone the next day - look, bring it on!”, captain Michelle Guckian perfectly summed up the emotions of Leitrim people in Parnell Park on Sunday.

Her first words captured the raw emotion of the occasion as she spoke to the Observer following the 3-8 to 2-10 victory: “I honestly can’t say how to sum that up - it is a dream come true for a lot of us, I think there was only one player there, Charlie, who has ever played in Croke Park so we’re all ecstatic - we’re just overcome with joy.”

Informed that the Green & Gold would be facing a Tyrone team Leitrim beat in the first round of the competition in Ballinamore, Michelle laughed as she said “Tyrone the next day - look bring it on! It is going to be a tough battle like it was in Ballinamore.

"We know that we got different chances and they got certain chances, we know they’re going to throw everything at us and we’re going to throw it right back at them.”

Not overly fond of the media duties that come with the captaincy, Michelle joked about what it would mean to lead this Leitrim team out in Croke Park “Jesus, media interviews, I love them!” before stressing that leading this team was a group effort!

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“It is an absolute honour to lead this team, to be the captain of this team but as you can see, there is not just one leader on this team, everyone is a leader from one to 25. We only have a panel of 25 and every single person makes a difference on that team, whether it is on the field or coming on as a finisher, everyone makes a huge impact. I know we have a small panel but we’re just such a tight knit group.”

Looking back on the game, Michelle admitted that Leitrim’s struggles to convert their chances almost cost them but stressed that this team find different ways to win: “We kicked some outrageous wides and there are a couple of us who would be the score takers on the team and we were off today but it just shows the diversity we have on the team.

“Laura O’Dowd coming up and scoring how many points, Muireann Devaney scoring points - there is no one scorer on the team, everyone is really pushing on and the girls coming from the backline, pushing up, they’re well able to score as well and that is what we want, an all round team and not relying on any one person.”

Indeed, the Leitrim captain highlighted the workrate instilled into this team by manager Jonny Garrity, even if their game management towards the end caused problems: “Game management, we know we have to put that on for the next day. In the previous games, we were down by nine and came back, in this one we were up by nine and they came back so it is up and down so hopefully we will get a little more consistency as time goes on.

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“Workrate is kind of sown into us by Jonny. Last year we played Wexford and we came up short but we knew that workrate would get us across the line. We know that Wexford are a physical team, we’d have to throw our bodies on the line and I think most of the girls did that today.”

Asked will the Leitrim players celebrate the victory over Wexford, Michelle laughed as she said “Absolutely - one day!”