Sarah Rowe Talks Ladies Football

Sarah Rowe started playing football at national school, and she loved the game from the very beginning. She joined the Mayo development squads at the age of ten playing for the county under 12 team, since then playing for the Mayo senior teams was a burning ambition. Sarah joined the senior panel to train when she was fifteen and made her debut a year later. Now one of the most recognisable players in Ladies football, her enthusiasm for the game she loves is clear to see.

 

“I started in National school when I was about nine or ten, so I originally started playing soccer first and then moved into the football. I gained a lot of interest from our first manager Hugh Lynn, he really brought me out of my shell. Like, I was interested in other sports like gymnastics, basketball and so on but he really brought it out of me.
“I would have trained with the lads at school, though we didn’t play together in National school, the boys were separated out. I continued then to play at secondary school and started playing for Mayo when I was ten for the county u12 team.
“I suppose I worked my way up through the u12, u14, u16 minors, and started training with the senior when I was fifteen but I didn’t play until I was sixteen as a new rule had come in at that stage that said you had to be sixteen to play for the seniors. I trained with them a year and half before I was able to play though. That was a brilliant experience and it taught me what was expected.”
“My club is Kilmoremoy and we are an amalgamation I suppose of 3 GAA clubs, we worked our way up from junior to intermediate and we’d be hoping to get up to senior by next year. We won the county junior title two years ago and got to the All Ireland semi final and got knocked out there so we’d be hoping to do well this year if we can.”

 

Sarah has a strong family background in Gaelic games. Her grandad Paddy Jordan was on the last Mayo team to win the Sam Maguire so the quest for an All Ireland is in the blood. Her other grandad John Rowe played in an All Ireland minor final, both strong connections in sport that she is very proud of as she makes her own way with football-mad Mayo.
“I am Paddy Jordan’s granddaughter and I’m proud of that and to say my grandad was one of the All Ireland team. He often told the story of the curse when I was growing up and I believed it! I’m not sure he did though. But I suppose now I’d have no time for superstition. Loads of time in sport you can make excuses for yourself, but only you yourself can decide what happens to you so I suppose its a case of look after yourself, if everyone does that you get results. The Mayo men have worked hard and just fallen at the last hurdle, but I believe you make your own luck and their time will come. You train hard and control what you can.

 

Sarah joined the Mayo panel to train at fifteen years of age, and the experience was vital even though it was a year before her senior debut. On coming in at a young age she says:
“I was happy to be in at a young age, because my values of work and what didn’t work were established from a young age. These were established from watching the older players train and learning from them, playing from a young age was something I always wanted to do, I was coming in early and certainly it worked for me. I agree with players coming in early, you’re shown a lot of tough love in sport and you have to manage yourself and there are values you bring across to every aspect of your life so I think its good to get girls in early and get them trained up. Obviously with certain aspects of the game modified like gym work etc.
“Some people might disagree but it worked for me. Some people might disagree and think there is a danger of girls losing interest by the age of 14 or 15 but if you really love it you won’t lose interest and we want to keep players involved. It’s about timing too, if you’re part of a good set up and a good team then people will want to stay involved and keep playing.”

 

Sarah also sees the value in the increased interest in the game and the wider profile it has gained in recent years.
“You see with LIDL coming on board how much they raised the profile of the game and girls were suddenly getting recognised for the amount of time they were putting in. There seemed to be a bit more respect around the place and there were more people watching the game and they realised that it was of a good quality. The standard has improved with more sponsors getting on board and people are putting more effort in. It’s good that young girls have role models to look up to - when I was growing up you would have heard of one or two players like Diane O’Hora because she was from Ballina but you wouldn’t have heard as much about other players as there wasn’t as much exposure and marketing as there is now.
“There seems to be a lot more of that which helps young girls get involved and with the All Ireland final with 46,000 people at it, Ladies football is probably the most popular women’s sport in Ireland and the most appealing game for girls.”

 

The commitment of players in ladies football cannot be questioned and Sarah like many other women playing football and camogie see their efforts and commitment on a par with men’s teams, a fact often unrecognised by those outside the sport.
“There’s a small bit of disrespect towards women’s sport and what is involved, but if you have been involved in a team you know what is involved in training, and commitment. Anyone that is close to you realises the work that is put in.
“Anyone personally involved will know that you put a lot of work into it because if you are serious you have to. Even the last two to three years women’s teams are training a lot harder and more often and only the people who matter know what you’re doing and outside that you hope to get the respect you deserve from the general public.”
“Finding it hard to get pitches is annoying and we feel we should be training on the exact same grounds and playing on the exact same pitches as the men’s teams. There should be more double headers etc because that would annoy us that there are opportunities there that could be taken but aren’t. We would like to push for that over the next few years.
“My current time commitment is three pitch sessions a week, two gym sessions and maybe a running session and then recovery as often as possible, with almost 2 physio sessions a week ice baths etc. We’re training for the championship now with a bit of loading for that coming in to games. We go straight in to the Connacht final against Galway so that’s the current focus.”

 

And her off season? She laughs:
“Off season I’m on season with DCU with three sessions and two gym sessions, but College football is serious but not as serious as county football. You’re running into the O’Connor Cup and league after Christmas so you’re training and balancing both and that’s tough. So in the off-season, I’m always training and doing something. I can’t remember ever taking a week off. You have a different type of lifestyle at College you socialise a bit more but you never really switch off.

 

On coaching expertise for Ladies football “Our Manager Peter Leahy has been involved with a number of men’s teams and because he’s been involved we’re getting the benefit of that. I think over the next years it’s only going to get better all round for all teams.
"When I was doing my Leaving Cert I gave pretty much all my time to soccer, but I really wanted to give Mayo ladies a proper go, it was always my ambition from a young age to play for the Mayo senior team. At the minute soccer is on the back burner and football is demanding way more than ever before. If you’re playing two sports everyone wants a bit of you and you end up feeling burnt out so I’m focused on Mayo only. We had a good year last year when we got to the All Ireland final and we want to kick on again."
And on what the future holds for Sarah Rowe, she had expressed an interested in spending some time playing down under in Australia?
“I went over to Australia and had a look at the set up over there and visited a few clubs. It was really good to see that environment and I’m keeping all my options open there, but at the minute I’m totally focused on Mayo and I’m really looking forward to the season ahead. I can’t wait!

 

Whatever Sarah decides to do next, you know from taking to her that she will give it her full commitment.