by Daire Walsh

Former Dublin captain Denise Masterson is excited to have been afforded the opportunity to be in Croke Park this Saturday as the inaugural Club Summit gets up and running at the Jones’ Road venue.

A joint venture between the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association, the Club Summit (proudly delivered by Amazon.ie) is a major event that will bring together club and county volunteers from across Ireland and the world for a full day of expert-led seminars, interactive exhibitions, take-home resources and inspiring forums.

Across the course of the proceedings, the Summit will focus on five core content areas for volunteers right across the Gaelic Games spectrum – namely Developing Your Games, Running Your Club, Supporting Your People, Enhancing Your Facilities and Contributing to Your Community.

Team skipper when the Jackies made their TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship breakthrough against Tyrone in 2010, Masterson is due to be a key contributor on the flagship Dugout Discussion Panels at the Club Summit.

“It’s the first of its kind and a very innovative kind of idea. I’m looking forward to actually hearing some of the speakers myself. Very interesting in terms of the clubs. It sounds like a great idea to have everything so centralised,” Masterson remarked.

“Of course with the integration [between the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association] happening, and there’s a talk on the one-club model as well, it’s a one-stop-shop for anybody looking to maybe upskill people in their club.”

Given the pivotal role that is played by volunteers throughout all of the above-mentioned associations, it seems wholly appropriate that the Club Summit is seeking to bring them together in a single setting. Since stepping away from the playing side of the LGFA, Masterson acknowledges she has gained a greater appreciation for those who give up their free time to help out in clubs right across the country.

“I’ve probably become way more aware of that since not being a player. You don’t realise when you’re playing. You’re so kind of maybe self-involved with the team, you don’t realise what is going on. It’s only now that I’ve maybe gotten involved in a little bit of coaching and now that my two boys are playing, that you realise how much goes on in the background.

“I think you only get to appreciate that when you step away from the playing side of it a bit. Definitely I think in the last eight years particularly, I’ve become very aware of the volunteerism and how hard it is.

“Particularly for me, having two boys. You’d love to give back more, but you’re so busy running around after them, that it’s hard to contribute to anything.”

Formerly a club player with both Ballymun Kickhams and Naomh Mearnóg, Masterson is now seen more regularly at the Na Fianna club on Dublin’s northside.

Her two young sons are currently part of the underage set-up within the St Mobhi-Road based outfit and 2025 saw her being part of the management team for the club’s senior ladies side. While she has stepped away from the latter position for the coming year, she remains keen to stay involved in some sort of coaching capacity moving forward.

“Tom [her eldest son] was doing the Go Games last year and then my other fella, he has just turned seven. He’ll be starting the Go Games, so it’s just impossible with the time.

“I try and help out with either of their training sessions. Or that would be the idea if I wasn’t too busy in the car trying to get them from one to the other. That’s the hope, to get involved with the boys now and do a little bit of helping out with their team.”

Of course, Masterson also continues to keep a watchful eye on the progress of the Dublin senior footballers – who won their sixth All-Ireland title in the space of nine seasons with a final triumph over provincial rivals Meath at Croke Park last August.

From the starting line-up for that 2-16 to 0-10 success in GAA HQ, three of them – Leah Caffrey, Sinead Goldrick and Carla Rowe – also featured alongside Masterson on a Dublin team that narrowly lost a Brendan Martin Cup decider to Cork in 2014.

None of that triumvirate are yet to see action in this year’s Lidl National Football League Division 1 and the joint-management team of Paul Casey and Derek Murray have largely given opportunities to a whole host of young players in their top-tier encounters to date with Kerry and Meath.

Both of these fixtures ended in defeat for the Metropolitan outfit, but despite admitting it could prove to be a difficult league campaign overall for the side, Masterson feels the return of some experienced figures in the coming weeks will be beneficial to the newcomers within their ranks.

“Two heavy defeats and it’s not where you want to be at the start of the year, but at the same time, I’m sure the lads will be happy to start having a good look at players. You’d imagine maybe they’d look at the squad then heading into championship, but it’s that whole aspect of rebuilding,” Masterson added.

“You would just be a little bit concerned that there are a lot of the senior players that maybe have stepped away over the past couple of years. I think you always need those kinds of senior players there to lead the way. It will be really important when they get the likes of Carla and Leah and whatever other players that they’re hoping to get back this year.

“I think it will be important to get them back on the pitch with the younger players, just to show them the ropes, so to speak. I think it will be a tough league campaign for Dublin, but I’m sure the lads then will be having another look at the panel and trying to regroup for championship.”

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