By Daire Walsh

She attended a very special reunion a little over a fortnight ago and on December 4 of this year, there will be another anniversary of a significant team milestone in the playing career of former Galway footballer Niamh Duggan.

Back in October 2004, Duggan struck an opening period goal as the Tribeswomen defeated Dublin to claim the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship crown for the very first time. To commemorate this monumental achievement, there was a 20th anniversary celebration at The Ard Ri House Hotel in Tuam recently with Duggan being amongst those to make it along on the night.

Meanwhile, 12 years on from securing national glory with her county, Duggan was joint captain of an Annaghdown team that overcame an Aimee Mackin-inspired Shane O’Neills outfit in an All-Ireland intermediate football championship decider held in Parnell Park exactly three weeks before Christmas. In addition to being a proud moment for herself, Duggan remembers the great boost this victory gave to the people of Annaghdown.

“It was huge at the time. We meet up every so often or even when you bump into players on the panel now and again, there would always be that connection. It’s still talked about in a way, between the homecoming and different kinds of things that stand out for everybody,” Duggan recalled.

“It has been referenced the last few years, it brought a great lift to the parish. It was December time as well, so it was darker evenings and things like that. Gaelic games in general had quietened down at that stage. It gave everyone a lift.

“It’s the great thing about sport that, when there is a bit of success, that it gets people talking about something positive and distracts them from anything negative. The bad news that can be to the forefront.”

While she is no longer a playing member in the set-up, Duggan is nevertheless taking on an active role as Annaghdown embark on their latest quest for All-Ireland success. Having previously helped out Damien Fitzpatrick in the juvenile section of the club, the start of 2024 saw Duggan becoming part of Martin O’Neill’s management team for the Annaghdown intermediates.

Her first year as an adult selector has proven to be a successful one with the club not only sealing their return to the top-tier in Galway courtesy of a county final victory over Oughterard, but also claiming a Connacht intermediate championship title with an impressive win against Drumcliffe-Rosses Point of Sligo at the beginning of this month.

This means Annaghdown are now just three games away from securing the AIB All-Ireland Intermediate Championship for a second time, but their focus for now is on next Saturday’s quarter-final clash with Dunedin Connolly’s at Wardie Playing Fields on Granton Road, Edinburgh.

Eventual winners Glanmire had to dig deep before registering a 2-5 to 0-9 success over London’s Tir Chonaill Gaels at the same stage of last year’s competition and this – as well as a previous visit by a Galway team to the current British champions – is keeping Annaghdown on high alert ahead of their forthcoming trip to the Scottish capital.

“Glenamaddy here in Galway, when they won Connacht in 2015, they travelled over to Dunedin themselves and they scraped by with a point or two victory as well there. I know the mentality sometimes is teams on the continent or elsewhere mightn’t be as strong, but definitely not.

“It flags for us that Glanmire are a strong team winning out the competition, but they just scraped by the British champions last year. Definitely, it’s something that we’re very aware of and we fully have to focus on our own performance. Improve on what we need to improve on from our last day out as well.”

Although that evening in The Ard Ri House Hotel brought the majority of the team together in an organised fashion, Duggan regularly meets up with those that she shared a dressing room with during Galway’s memorable march towards the Brendan Martin Cup in 2004. The bonds formed in that successful period remain in place two decades on and in her current role as part of the Annaghdown management, Duggan acknowledged she is greatly influenced by those who helped the Tribeswomen to reach the promised land.

“There is always that connection within the squad from what we achieved that time. When you’re training so much together, you have that bond forever then. I always try and bring whatever I can from that experience to the teams that I’m involved in.

“Just little bits here and there to help out or something I’ve picked up along the way from the coaches and managers that I was lucky to have over me down through the years. None more so than PJ Fahy, Richard Bowles and Mick O’Connell in 2004.

“What they achieved with us and how they set up and everything like that. I’m kind of pulling from that as well, from that experience. Hopefully it will help a few of the girls coming through as well.”

While Kerry had the measure of them in the end, this year could be viewed as a season of progress for the Galway footballers as they reached the TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship final for just the third time since their sole triumph to date back in 2004.

Duggan believes the success Kilkerrin-Clonberne have enjoyed on the club scene in recent years underlines the potential that is there within the county and she also feels there are players right throughout the grades in Galway who are capable of making an impact within the Tribes set-up.

“In fairness to Daniel Moynihan, who is over the team this year, he has done a super job. In blending the girls together to get them as far as they did, it wasn’t an easy task. There’s huge potential out there, especially with Kilkerrin-Clonberne in the county as well, who are All-Ireland champions for the last number of years,” Duggan added.

“We played a number of intermediate teams, St Brendan’s and Barna, and the likes. There are definitely players right throughout those teams who have the potential. I suppose it’s getting them to buy into the Galway set-up and to focus on that as well. To commit for the few years that they have a chance to play.”

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