GAELIC GAMES WOMEN'S SFC FINAL:THIS WEEK seems like an eternity for Lindsay Peat, it feels like Sunday will never come, writes MARY HANNIGAN
“There’s been a lot of talking, we just want to get going now,” she says, yearning for kick-off against five-in-a-row-seeking Cork in what will be Dublin’s first All-Ireland final since 2004.
“My parents aren’t really into sport and even they’re yapping away about it all this week, that’s probably what’s freaking me out,” she laughs.
“My mother’s asking how I got on in training, asking about my nerves, and she’d never really do that. She’s more a fashion queen than anything else. It’s a bit disturbing when she knows a bit about the football.”
The 28-year-old from Artane, who works for the Health Service Executive in Dublin, will be making her first appearance in Croke Park since losing successive schools’ finals there with St Fiachra’s (Beaumont).
“When I was in fifth class we lost by a point, and we were hammered the next year, so not the best of memories. But I love the place, it’s going to be a huge thing for me personally and all the girls playing there, it’s special.”
And it’s been a special year in Peat’s sporting life, a hectic one too as she combined co-captaining the Irish basketball team, playing SuperLeague with DCU Mercy, playing her first season with the senior Dublin team, as well as club football with Parnell’s.
“It has been tough but I have very, very good people in my life, great friends and a great family. There are times when it’s ‘you’re never here, I never see you’ and I’m trying to spread myself like butter. Obviously there’s no social life, but when I’m retired with, hopefully, a couple of medals I can sit in the pub. You only get one shot at it.”
Her busiest single day came back in August when Ireland’s European Championship qualifier against Switzerland in Tallaght fell on the same date as Dublin’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Kerry in Kilkenny.
As co-captain and one of the senior members of the Irish squad she was committed to basketball, but desperately wanted to play her part in the game at Nolan Park. The solution? A helicopter.
“I don’t know who arranged it, I asked no questions, apart from ‘are you serious?’ I felt like an absolute eejit getting in to the helicopter (at City West) to be honest, I’m not that type of person, I was very, very embarrassed – but I was very flattered too. I was hoping to make the last 20 minutes but with the wind the way it was I only made the last 30 seconds,” she laughs.
“But to be there with the team, to be able to celebrate with them, I can’t thank the lads enough for that. Although I am trying to forget about the helicopter.”
The aim, then, is to complete an already memorable year with victory over the champions.
“It’s been a fabulous summer for me, this would be the icing on the cake. I’m not a crier, but if we won on Sunday I think I’d just break down, I’d be a puddle of tears.”
“There is no doubt Cork are favourites, they’re a fantastic team. They want this five-in-a-row so there’ll be no complaceny from them.
“Cork people are a different breed, I know that even in the basketball, they don’t feel pressure, they stand up to it. But once we give it everything as a team and individually all we can do is hope things go our way. That’s all any team can do, leave nothing behind.
“Once you do that you can deal with it, whatever happens – but if it’s a case of ‘I should have done this, I should have done that’, well, you can’t live with that.”
