Cummins thankful that club and county helped her win Golden Glove
Roscommon goalkeeper Helena Cummins with her 2025 ZuCar Golden Glove award at Croke Park in Dublin on Wednesday. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
While it wasn’t something she was expecting to win, Roscommon goalkeeper Helena Cummins acknowledged it is a “nice achievement” to get her hands on the ZuCar Golden Glove award for 2025.
Courtesy of her outstanding point-blank save from Joanne Doonan in a TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship group stage encounter with Fermanagh at Kiltoom on June 15th, Cummins was shortlisted for this year’s Golden Glove.
She encountered stiff competition from fellow nominees Eimear Barry (Laois), Robyn Murray (Meath), Dearbhla Gower (Galway) and Clare Friel (Donegal), but it was the Rossies shot-stopper who ultimately came out on top of the public vote for the award on the LGFA website.
This was helped in no small way by the Roscommon LGFA and Cummins’ own club, Michael Glaveys, urging people to vote for the veteran netminder across their various social media channels.
Cummins was extremely grateful for the support she received for this award from not just within her native county, but outside of it as well.
“Delighted, it’s a nice achievement to get. I was quite surprised by it myself, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting to win it because I was up against counties with a lot bigger areas. Going up against some very good ‘keepers there, senior level as well,” Cummins said.
"It got me over the line. Even people outside the county that supported me as well, it was great. It’s great to know that the support is out there.
“Glaveys is my club and they really got behind me as well, like they always do. They’re always there behind everything. They always push things and they always support everyone from the club, but they really got behind me now with plenty of sharing and asking people to share. It was great to see my local club helping out as well,” she continued.
Within seconds of making her award-winning save from a goal-bound Doonan effort in that aforementioned clash against Fermanagh, Cummins had to be on her toes to turn away another close-range shot by Sinead Barrett. She made a number of other stops throughout the contest, but Roscommon eventually fell to a 4-10 to 3-9 defeat.
Because they had also lost out to Laois in their opening game of Group One a fortnight earlier, the Rossies found themselves in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship relegation play-offs.
A 3-13 to 1-9 success over Wicklow in Crettyard ensured they retained their second-tier status for 2025, but Cummins admitted there was disappointment within the Roscommon ranks at not making it into the knockout rounds of the All-Ireland IFC.
Yet she also sees it as a positive that the Connacht outfit managed to avoid dropping down to the junior grade and stressed that the squad will be looking to improve when the 2026 intercounty season kicks into gear.
“We were disappointed after the Fermanagh game, we dusted ourselves off and we knew we had a job to do against Wicklow. We went out and we got the job done.
“The season ended up a lot shorter than we had hoped, but at the same time we prevented ourselves going down to junior. It’s just something we’ll have to learn from and push on for next year,” she reflected.
An All-Ireland Minor B football championship winner in 2009, Cummins was drafted into the Roscommon senior panel a year later. While she hasn’t been part of the set-up in every season since making her competitive bow, she has made over 100 appearances for the Rossies at adult level.
Yet Cummins isn’t thinking about extending her career tally for the county just yet as she is purely focusing on a busy schedule with Michael Glaveys in the Roscommon intermediate football championship.
Having overcome Western Gaels in an opening round game on August 10th, Glaveys went on to lose against St. Barry’s in their next championship encounter seven days later. However, they played out a 1-10 to 2-7 draw with Kilbride on August 24th and this Sunday will see them taking on Pádraig Pearses in the fourth round of the intermediate championship in Ballinlough.
There will also be a final round robin fixture against St. Croan’s next weekend and after that point, Cummins is hopeful that the 2023 junior county champions will be featuring in the knockout rounds of the intermediate grade.
“As soon as county finished, it was straight back to the club set-up with Michael Glaveys. Girls I’ve played with since I was very young, so it was great to get back to them. At the moment, I’m not even thinking about county just yet. Like every other year, it’s concentrating solely on club and trying to get somewhere within that,” Cummins concluded.
