Claire Gannon Reflects On Landmark Dublin Camogie campaign

By Paul Keane 

The last time Dublin contested an All-Ireland senior camogie semi-final before this season, Claire Gannon was just 14. The time before that, she wasn't even born.

So for all the disappointment that went with last month's season ending defeat to Cork, it will still go down as a landmark campaign for the Sky Blues.

Gannon, a twin of Aisling, and one of three sisters who lined out for Dublin against Cork that afternoon along with elder sibling Niamh, played no small part in her team's summer of fun.

From her Player of the Match award in the big Group 2 win over Wexford in June, to her role in the Division 1B league final win over the same opposition, she was an influential figure.

Consider too that it was Gannon's delivery that led to Dublin being awarded an early penalty in that All-Ireland semi-final against Cork.

Gannon accepted that Dublin were ultimately overwhelmed by a terrific Cork side that day but she is viewing it as a vital learning opportunity for an ambitious crew of players who are determined to push on again in 2025.

"Dublin camogie is definitely on the way up," enthused Gannon at the Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin GAA Club Championships 2024 media event.

"Obviously it didn't end the way we wanted it to but we have to look at it and see that we reached a semi-final for the first time in seven years. For most of us, that was our first time playing in a semi-final. We really emphasised when we left Dublin at the end of the season that we have to bring that standard back to our clubs and keep pushing the Dublin championship on so that we can contend at inter-county level even more next year."

Gannon can count the number of current Dublin players who also played in the 2017 semi-final on one hand.

"Only two or three I think, Aishling Maher, Emma Flanagan, only two or three of the players and my older sister," she said. "Other than that, it was our first time competing in a quarter-final and then a semi-final in the same year. We definitely took our learnings from that."

One of the principal learnings was just how switched on you need to be when taking on a team like Cork, the eventual champions, who will be bidding for an All-Ireland three-in-a-row in 2025.

Dublin had also played Cork in the group stage of the All-Ireland series.

"The first match against them was definitely a massive learning in terms of tactics, probably off the ball even," she explained. "Cork's puck-outs, their sidelines, we weren't used to a team tactically being so smart off the ball so we were very aware of that going into the semi-final and of what to expect from their half-forwards and their half-back line.

"You just have to be constantly switched on for everything. Cork use every opportunity to take a score, whereas we'd probably have seen a sideline as a break. You can't do that against Cork. For that 60 minutes you have to be switched on against them."

Whilst Cork were convincing winners against Dublin in both championship meetings, Dublin were just three points off Galway when they met in the group stage. That was the same Galway team that pushed Cork to within three points in last Sunday's All-Ireland senior final. Another reason then for Dublin to be optimistic.

For Gannon, if Dublin wish to push on and bridge that gap, it's important that this summer's group of players stay together and come back even stronger.

"A massive thing is keeping the same players," she said. "I've been on the team two or three years and when I'm with Dublin, I'd do anything to fight for the girl on my team, whereas in previous years it probably would have been so many players changing that you didn't even know a girl in the league and it would take until the Championship to know who you're really playing with.

"Now there's a load of us who have been playing together for years. It's almost like playing with a clubmate, in that you know what moves she's going to make. It's definitely just consistency in that regard with players and management that will help us massively in the future."

Gannon had positive words for the management team too, headed up by Bill McCormack and Gerry McQuaid with the experienced Mickey McCullough as coach.

"Management consistency is definitely a massive part of it if you want to compete with the better teams," she said. "I think David Herity would probably have been the last manager to be there for three years. Other than that, I'm not sure, it's just been new management every year so that consistency definitely helps."

When the dust had settled after the All-Ireland semi-final, the Dublin players met up for a debrief and to talk about the need to strike while the iron is hot in 2025.

"Ash Maher, our captain, put a massive emphasis on the dressing-room, who is here right now, that we can't change it for next year, we can't just be like, 'This is enough, great, we reached a semi-final, that's my career with Dublin'. She really wanted to emphasise that every player here needs to come back in November or December, come into the pre-season, and just keep pushing on our clubmates even to get involved in Dublin. It was just like, 'Look what Dublin can do now'. So we need all of us to stay, definitely, as a team."