Division 4 is haunting Leitrim Ladies as Garrity keeps long-serving Michelle Guckian coming back for Green & Gold

Another January, another cold evening in Cloone for Leitrim ladies as they look forward to the start of the Lidl LGFA NFL campaign next Sunday against Longford and it is the thought of escaping Division 4 that keeps Michelle Guckian and her teammates coming back year after year.

“Looking forward to another year. I suppose it's the same as every other year, you go back to it early and hope for the best,” was Michelle’s succinct answer when asked about looking ahead to another campaign for the Green & Gold.

But what is it that keeps Michelle coming back when, after a long career at both ends of the field for Leitrim, when it would have been so easy to step away, particularly in the wake of Leitrim’s historic All-Ireland win in 2024? The simple answer is manager Jonny Garrity!

“Johnny Garrity has a lot to do with that to be honest,” revealed the Ladies captain, “I think the first year Johnny was in, I said ‘no I wasn't going to come back’ and he rang and he rang and he rang and I did come back in the end and I'm very grateful that I did because 2024 is probably the best year of my life so far anyway and I owe Johnny that so as long as Johnny is here I'll be here.”

Last year was somewhat disjointed for Michelle with a move into goals midway through the season as niggling  injuries refused to clear up and the St Mary’s  clubwoman admits it was hard to deal with: “It definitely is difficult, injuries are part and parcel of it, I got a good few years without any injuries.

GARRITY & LEITRIM MORE DETERMINED THAN EVER TO ESCAPE DIVISION 4

“I'm getting a lot older and  the body is catching up to me now. Just niggles now, thankfully I've never had a serious, serious injury and touch wood I won't but these niggles they do catch up on you and it is frustrating even to go out on the pitch and try and do what you usually can do and then your body just kind of goes against you.

“But it is very frustrating because you know the ability of all the team and you want to play the best your ability and then you can't so  it is very frustrating but, as I said, it's part and parcel of it, you have to go with the good times and then dog through the rough times and that's what we are doing.”

One of the biggest frustrations of recent years for Leitrim has been the failure to escape Division 4 and Michelle admits it is on the minds of the squad: “It's always going to be in the back of your mind that division 4 is haunting us, it really is haunting us but it is something that we know we're capable of getting through.

“We've had good performances and then our bad performances have been at the latter end when we needed the good performances but we know the standard that we're at and division 4 is definitely that hurdle that we want to get across this year and we're going to give it our all for the league.”

It means nothing is being taken for granted: “Carlow is back down in division 4 this year so they're going to be a tough team. Sligo are a young, fit, running team, we know that they have such potential from their underage.

“You can see their youth is coming through so we know that's going to be a tough battle as well. We haven't played Offaly in a while but have always given us a tough battle no matter when we played them so that'll be another tough one and we drew with Longford last year down in Kiltubrid.

“Every team is going to be tough, it's just on the day for a lot of these games. We've put in the preparation, Johnny has put in the work and the lads aim so we're hoping that we can come on the better side of it this year.”

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Although there were some harsh lessons in the Senior Championship last year, Michelle believes Leitrim will benefit in the long run: “We knew after winning in 2024 that the step up was going to be massive. We knew that senior football is going to be another level and we came up against the best teams in the country.

“Dublin and Galway are always going to be the best teams in the Senior Championship and Dublin went on to win the All-Ireland  but it's good to see that standard. Against Mayo we had a tight one the first day against them, we probably should have won that game. Then to play Donegal and Mayo again, it came down to the wire so you know it's only tit for tat and on a different day could have been a different result.”

And the lessons? “The pace of the game is another level - the movement, the speed, everything was just a different level and something we were kind of trying to catch up to. It was good to kind of play against that standard - we all know that we have another step up in us and we'll go again for 2026 at Intermediate.”