Praise for player of the match Garda as she leads Kerry to opening win

What a performance.

They took down their Group 2 rivals Mayo, by 0-13 to 1-4.

Key to victory was the performance of Danielle O'Leary, who scored four points off the bench, but it was Aishling O'Connell who came away with a deserved player of the match award.

The defender grabbed a point for herself as she led admirably from the back.

Like all players, the 2022 All-Star has the tough task of juggling work and sport.

Last season it was particularly hard as the Garda was stationed in Bandon, and playing for Cork club Éire Óg.

In an interview from last August, she explained: “It is tough, I won’t lie! We trained last Friday week and I drove straight to work after down in West Cork. It does take its toll. It is hard enough going into nights after a tough training, but the two hour drive down hasn’t helped.

“You start a night shift at 7pm and you finish at 7am. You could be working on a Saturday night and you’ve training on Sunday morning. There have been times that I’ve driven down to Kerry, you might get half an hour in the bed and you’re going straight to training.

“You want to train, but you’re not able to do as much as you’d like because there is obviously an injury risk factor there. In a way it’s good that I’m around this long, but it’s hard if you were trying to make an impact because you’re not going to be training as well as you should be. It’s tough, but it’s the job I signed up for!”

Thankfully for her and her team, she has a much shorter commute to training, having moved to Killarney.

Kerry vs Mayo teams and scorers:

Kerry scorers: S O’Shea 0-4, D O’Leary 0-4, N Carmody 0-2, A Galvin 0-1, A O’Connell 0-1, K Brosnan 0-1f.

Mayo scorers: S Walsh 0-3 (1f), C Keane 1-0, H Reape 0-1.

Kerry: M.E. Bolger; R Rahilly ,E Lynch, F O’Donoghue; A O’Connell, E Costello, C Lynch; M O’Connell, A Galvin ; N Carmody, N Ní Chonchúir, C Evans; K Brosnan, J Lucey, S O’Shea. Subs: N Broderick for R Rahilly 28, D O’Leary for K Brosnan, A Dillane for C Lynch (both h/t), N Quinn for J Lucey 52, K O’Connor for N Carmody 58

Mayo: J Gawalkiewicz; L Wallace, N O’Malley, C Durkan; D Caldwell, K Sullivan, S El Massry; H Reape, S Lally; L Hanley, S Walsh, A Flanagan; E Murray, C Keane, C Doherty. Subs: A Geraghty for S E Massry h/t, C Whyte for A Flanagan, A McDonnell for C Doherty (both 42), E Brennan for L Wallace 48, A Gough for H Reape 52.

Referee: Jonathan Murphy (Carlow).