RETAINING THEIR ALL-Ireland title in front of a record 50,141 crowd was a proud moment for Mick Bohan’s Dublin team. 

1-7 from Sinead Aherne helped the Dubs to a five-point win over Cork, avenging their three previous final defeats to the same opposition between 2014-16.

Dublin defender Sinead Goldrick was thrilled to string together the first back-to-back titles in the county’s history. To do it in front of a massive audience made it all the more special.

“We wanted to do two-in-a-row, I don’t think we would be happy with just the one,” she said after the game. “For years we chased winning that All-Ireland and then we finally had it and we definitely didn’t want to lose it.

“When I saw the top tier full, and a sense of pride hits you with the crowd. But that doesn’t matter unless you have the win. There’s a group of us who have lost quarter-finals by a point over the course of three years and then by two points to Kerry, so we just really wanted to get over the line today and thankfully this group did it together.

“Away from the lights we went on a journey and Mick said in ten year’s time you might see them in a pub or on the street and you just have to give that look, because nobody outside of the team knows what we have been through and how much we push each other.

“Football is about people seeing the best but behind the scenes things happen to players in their lives and everyone just pushes each other up, and this group is so special. Just to win and keep Brendan in Dublin; we have a huge sense of pride in that.

“Today was a good display of football, and that was important to us. You don’t want to just win, you want to win so that 50,000 people have respect for the game and the skill, and hopefully we showed that today.”

Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO

Was the two-in-a-row discussed much within the group this season?

“I think we probably just got asked about it so much,” said Aherne. “That’s there from the outside and that’s what’s looking in.

“We didn’t ignore it, I don’t think we can but we tried to put it into a frame that was about us and how we performed and it was put to the side and just to be able to bring forward all the things that we had and take a step by step approach last year and this year.

“We just wanted to come out and play and show what we can do, and the fact that we were playing Cork; we just knew we had to be at the peak of our game and that was it.”

It won’t be long before the talk turns to 2019 and whether the Girls in Blue can three-peat. 

“It’s been said already!” said Carla Rowe, who bagged two vital goals for the victors.

Goldrick continued: “We’re just so proud to get the two and I suppose any Dublin team wants to keep it in the county, so we’ll definitely try to do that. It was the first time any Dublin team won the League and that’s what we went after. Our second goal was to win Leinster and win the All-Ireland so we’re just really happy that that’s happened.”

“I suppose this year has probably been a bit different,” added captain Aherne. “For the first time in a few years we’ve been looking forwards instead of looking back, so it was about us and what we could do to push our game on to the next level and that was the approach we took.

“For Dublin next year that will be natural again – to constantly improve standards and see what way we go.”

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