The 2011 Westmeath All-Ireland LGF Intermediate title in the words of Karen Hegarty ... Gemma Leahy, Emma Morris and Carole Finch were also involved in this great victory
Karen Hegarty first played for Mullingar Shamrocks when herself and Ciara Blundell lined out for the boys' Under-10 team before going on to play on the Shamrocks intermediate LGF team at twelve. Ever since Karen has been involved in all aspects of the club's business, playing, coaching and in administration. In 2010 Karen made her debut for the Westmeath senior LGF team and in 2011 the team went on to win the LGF National League Division 4 title and the Ladies All Ireland Intermediate Championship. Here Karen tells the story of that 2011 championship season ...
2011 was my second year being part of the Westmeath Senior team. I started playing with the seniors in 2010 when Peter Leahy took over, I was turning 17 that March and I was in my Leaving Cert year. It was a poor season for the intermediate team winning only one game between league and championship, yet at the end of the season the always positive Peter Leahy told everyone in the changing room that we would win an All Ireland title in 2011.
Fast forward to the 2011 season, I was repeating my Leaving Cert and the plan was to only play minor county for that year. The trials came around and Peter gave me a call so I convinced my Mam that I had to go do the trials to say I couldn’t play that year. One trial led to another and I made the panel again that year. Four Shamrocks girls made the panel myself, Carole Finch, Emma Morris and Gemma Leahy. I decided I would balance football with my Leaving Cert and looking back it gave me great time management skills. We trained mainly in the rugby club that year and on two evenings a week I went from one hour minor training straight over to the senior training for another hour. We had a great league campaign winning every match in the group stage, I became a regular starter on the team at corner forward. The week before the Division 4 league final I had my minor championship semi-final against Dublin which we unfortunately lost, I remember being absolutely devastated after that game, it was my final year as a minor and I was captain of the team. Peter came over at the end of the game and said not to worry there was a big win coming next weekend.
The following weekend we played Roscommon in the League Final, I had a particularly good game that day and picked up the Player of the Match award. The woman from the TV came over to me and I didn't know where she was taking me. I had so many microphones stuck in my face along with a big camera and all I did was laugh because I didn't know what to say. That day winning the league title was massive for us, we had finally picked up some silverware after months of hard work by the whole panel and management. We were delighted! Emma Morris was our leading scorer in that competition scoring 1-26 in the seven matches.
Preparations began for championship and first up was a straight Leinster final versus Longford as we were the only two intermediate teams in Leinster, Westmeath had lost to Longford for a number of years before this. 2011 was the year this changed and we picked up the Leinster title.
The All Ireland series was next on the agenda and this was going to be a big decider on how our season was going to end up. First up was Cavan at home, the win we picked up that day was the first time we all had proper belief in the All Ireland dream! We played Fermanagh (win), Waterford (loss-Waterford were the only team we beat in 2010 and the only team we lost to in 2011!) and Longford (win) in the remaining group games. For the championship games I had lost my starting position and became the impact sub in every game, being dropped for championship was very disappointing after a strong league campaign but I decided I would work as hard as I could to regain my starting position. All Ireland semi-final versus Limerick, we won by three points thanks to a wonder goal by Emma Morris in the second half-We were going to Croke Park!!!
The All-Ireland final versus Cavan was against a team we had previously met in round one of the championship. I had started college in Maynooth University with Ciara Blundell so we were travelling up and down to training, with Laura Walsh, Laura Newman or Mikey Reynolds providing us with the lifts home. The whole lead up to that game with my team mates and best friends is something that I will never forget, the support we got from everyone at home was amazing. The first game versus Cavan was extremely tight! I was introduced at half time in that game and ended up scoring 1-1 in the second half, Cavan levelled the game at the end to bring us to a replay. We had mixed feelings after that game but also knew we could do it the next day.
The replay meant another couple of weeks of commuting for training from college and missing out on the nights out there but myself and Ciara knew that all the sacrifices would be worth it. The Thursday before the replay I got the call from Alan Mangan that I was starting the replay-hard work had paid off! The All-Ireland replay took place on 9 October 2011, we played out of our skins that day and grinded out the one point victory!! The feeling at that final whistle was of total relief and joy, the team that year had a very strong bond and we had all worked so hard to get the victory. The fact that the 2010 season resulted in just one victory to change that in such a short space of time to 2011 where we only had one loss was a massive testament to the hard work and dedication of the management and players involved. I will always remember the night of the All-Ireland when we got the lorry and the Garda escort. We felt like celebrities and I will never forget it.
