'I don't think anyone wants it to end'
Laura McSharry (right), pictured alongside Lily Finneran, feels that manager Trevor Clohessy has instilled huge belief in the Roscommon minor ladies' football team. Picture: Gerard O'Loughlin.
For Roscommon minor LGFA vice captain Laura McSharry, the excitement is palpable.
Roscommon find themselves on the cusp of a first ever All Ireland Minor A title but given the Kilbride clubwoman’s easy-going nature, it is hard to imagine that the biggest game of her fledgling career will take place this Saturday against a Cork side, who are the traditional dominant force in LGFA.
McSharry believes that manager Trevor Clohessy has helped create a winning environment which in turn has led to the positivity and feel good factor that surrounds this group of players.
“I think he has brought in different perspectives. Throughout the years we've had a lot of different managers, but I think his ideas are just different. He just knows what works for us. And his positive mindset. He’s so positive and from the start he believed in us. He didn't want any B title, he always wanted the A when we were kind of thinking oh, maybe we should go for a B. But yeah, he's always just believed in us.
“When we're training, we're training. But I think it's so important that outside of training we can have the craic with him as well and the rest of the management. I think we just get along with them all so well,” she noted.
For McSharry, serving as vice captain is a huge honour. The Kilbride woman believes that her journey to this stage would not have been possible without the support of her club while she also praises captain Shauna McGrath of Northern Harps, for being the ideal person to work alongside.
"It's huge to be vice captain. We would have played together before, and people might say we weren’t from the strongest clubs in the county but playing or being named captain and vice-captain lifts the club as well and makes the clubs recognised.
“I couldn't ask for anyone better to be alongside. At the start of the year, we got named captain and vice-captain and we both thought, this is our year, this is the year we want to do it. We get on so well. I don't think we've ever bashed heads. Never,” she joked.
The vice captain states that she saw this group had the potential to take the county to unchartered territory from the moment they stepped off the pitch at St. Croan’s following their very first challenge game of the season, when Westmeath provided the opposition.
For McSharry, helping Roscommon end their fairytale run in a blaze of glory would be the ultimate high.
The final step on this unforgettable journey will be bittersweet as the Kilbride clubwoman admits that this Saturday’s eagerly anticipated final will be emotional, with this the last game this group will play together.
“It would be a dream (to win). It would be huge. I think there will be tears either way. It’s so bittersweet because on the 25th it ends either way. I think all the girls, including myself, and the management as well, we would go further if we could. I don't think anyone wants it to end,” she concluded.
