Bríd Stack’s sporting journey has taken her from Cork to Croke Park and to Australia, but the 11-time All-Ireland winner hopes her playing days are not over just yet.
Stack’s remarkable career is the focus of Thursday night’s Laochra Gael on TG4 – apart from her achievements on the field she has in recent years also become a strong advocate for women’s health and female participation in sport.
The mother of two is currently seven months pregnant and hopes to get back playing with her club, St Vals, later this year. In the recent past, that outlet to continue playing football has proved invaluable in helping Stack after she suffered miscarriages – a topic she now openly discusses to try support other women.
“I found it difficult to speak about properly because I actually went through another one last summer while the filming was going on,” she says. “It probably took for me to have the second one to probably talk to people about it.
“I remember going back to sport, and going back to St Vals in particular after the second one was vital for me. It probably was only in hindsight, looking back on it, that I realised just how much of a distraction it gave me and how it helped me kind of get over it a bit.
“I guess the hardest thing about it is that it’s very much out of your control. I can only speak for myself, but you question yourself so much when it happens, maybe I shouldn’t be training, maybe I shouldn’t be running, maybe I’m too old etc. The reality is it affects so many women and in so many different ways.
“Going forward it certainly changes your mindset during a healthy pregnancy in that you’re never fully at ease until you have that baby safely in your arms.”
Stack (38) believes it is beneficial for women to talk about such matters.
“There is kind of this taboo that you can’t tell anybody until you are 12 weeks [pregnant], which I just think is ridiculous because you are instantly excited from the second you see that positive pregnancy test.
“To keep that to yourself and then for something to not come to fruition is very difficult to try deal with by yourself. I certainly think it’s helpful to talk about it with somebody who has maybe gone through it, that definitely makes it a little bit easier.”
After finishing with Cork, Stack subsequently joined Great Western Sydney Giants in 2021. But in a preseason game she suffered a serious neck injury and was within millimetres of being left paralysed.
“I think the reason why I probably still get a bit upset about it is because for so many years with Cork, you could be as selfish as you liked,” Stack explains.
“But when a child comes into the mix, it just makes everything a lot harder. They’re the first thing you think about in the morning and the last thing you think about at night. So it probably weighs on me a little bit that I had a deadly amount of guilt about the injury – just what it could have done to my family in the long-term.
“I suppose four years on I’ve certainly made my peace with it, I’ve gone back playing football, loved football and enjoyed football. But when Cárthach Óg was so young, it was certainly a difficult time.”
Stack, who returned to play with the Giants the following season, was among the trailblazers in terms of Irish players joining AFLW clubs.
In recent years the number of Irish players has mushroomed. Meath captain Aoibhín Cleary has become the latest to sign for a club Down Under, joining Richmond.
It appears there will now be more than 40 Irish players in AFLW for the first time but while Stack understands the concerns of such a talent drain, the former Cork footballer believes the figures will start decreasing in the seasons ahead.
“I suppose when you hear another big name like that, another All-Ireland winner going down, I suppose it can kind of unsettle you a small bit,” she adds.
“But I think over time, just like with the men, it will kind of filter out a small little bit. I know there are girls going over, but there’s also girls coming back.
“If they get the opportunity to go over, it is a phenomenal experience, I can vouch for it, it is amazing. But over time I think that it will peter out. And I think there’s a lot of maybe weathering the storm a small bit in the coming years for the LGFA.
“The Irish girls were going over as ready-made athletes, whereas now the [AFLW] academies are starting to churn out these excellent players. They’re just completely ready to play whereas maybe in previous years that wasn’t the case.
“You’re going to see the academies churning out a lot more players. You’re going to see maybe the demand [dropping] on the Irish to come over. So, it’s going to be a lot harder to break into the AFLW in the coming years.”
But Stack hopes to be breaking into the team with St Vals again later this season. The boots are not ready for the garage just yet.
“I still have that competitiveness in me, I still want to play senior football.
“Yeah, I’d love to go back and play again if the body is able – I suppose the mind still wants to play but if the body is still able after this we’ll see.”
– Brid Stack’s Laochra Gael episode will be broadcast on Thursday at 9.30pm on TG4.
