Kate Sullivan All Set For Sylvesters’ Go-Ahead Ireland Championship Push After Injury Setback

By Paul Keane 

Club championship time and Kate Sullivan is ready to channel her frustrations into effective performances on the pitch for St Sylvesters. 

They'll take on Fingallians in the Go-Ahead senior football championship tomorrow evening (Wednesday, August 21) and the Group B opener will amount to a clean slate for Sullivan.

The last few weeks of her inter-county campaign with Dublin were frustrating to say the least, a grade three hamstring tear ruling the attacker out of their All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway.

"I'm just back in time for the club championship," said Sullivan at the launch of the Go-Ahead club championships. "The bit of a break in between county and club was probably good for me to get back in and to be ready to go."

She isn't the only Dublin player keen to park the inter-county campaign and to move on with a fresh focus. Dublin had appeared to be motoring nicely and were favourites to retain the Brendan Martin Cup before their world suddenly came crashing down around them with that one point defeat to Galway in early July.

"We haven't done the review of the stats from that match yet but I wouldn't imagine the shot-to-score ratio is good," grimaced Sullivan. "Look, we obviously didn't play up to our standards on the day and we were caught."

Were there any warning signs beforehand that an underperformance was coming?

"No," insisted Sullivan. "As a squad we were probably the most competitive we had been in the last few years. Getting a few of the girls back from previous years was great so, competitive-wise, it was probably at an all-time high.

"Everyone was pushing eachother on for spots. We were taking it one game at a time of course but we had our sights set on reaching that final day again."

When the All-Ireland final did roll around, and Galway eventually came up short to Kerry, Sullivan could hardly bear to watch. At home with her family, the best she could do was to dip in and out of the coverage.

"I watched parts of it," she said. "It was tough. Obviously the emotion that they (Kerry) had at the end is something that you'd love to experience and because I'd experienced it before I knew what the feeling was like and how much of a high they were on. Yeah, it was obviously tough to watch but they were deserved winners on the day."

All of which has left Dublin as part of the chasing pack for 2025, with Kerry in their sights. By Sullivan's estimation, it's a big pack.

"I would have said at the start of this year that the Championship was going to be the most open it had been over the last number of years," said Sullivan. "I think Kerry in fairness to them were knocking on the door for the last number of years and could have been a bit unlucky at times so they were probably deserved winners in the final, particularly with the performance they had."

The challenge for Dublin, All-Ireland winners from 2017 to 2020, and again in 2023, is to conjure another peak season in 2025. Sullivan, who joined the group in 2018, is certain that they can do it.

"Yeah, definitely," she maintained. "I think coming in at that time, in 2018, I didn't have the heartache that those players had experienced in previous years and it was a really intense, high level setup which was great to learn in and to experience.

"I think now, for some of the girls that have come in in the last few years, they can benefit the same way now from older girls passing on their knowledge. There are a few players there, like Niamh Donlon, Niamh Crowley, who are very young and are still just starting off so I think the future is bright and over the next few years we should be up there battling for the top spot."

Interestingly, attacker Sullivan would favour a little more physicality to be permitted in the ladies game. They're in the process of reviewing the rules of the men's game and Sullivan gave her thoughts on how her game could potentially be improved too.

"I suppose the general one that most people would go with would be the physicality side of it," she said. "We do a lot of work in the gym every week and Sami Dowling, who came in as our S&C expert, has been second to none and has got us to a level that we've probably never been at before. To be able to use that on the pitch a bit more would be good."

Back on the club beat it's go time for Syls and Sullivan is hoping they can go deep into their campaign. Physically she feels good after the hamstring problem and is hoping to feature strongly.

"It was quite a bad tear, unfortunately two weeks before the Galway game," she winced. "It was a grade three but I've just made it back in time for the club."