WHEN Blaithin Bogue signed for the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos back in February to become their latest Irish AFLW recruit, the Fermanagh star made sure to negotiate that she would not be going ‘Down Under’ until Fermanagh’s season was over.
Back then, the Tempo Maguires player was confident that the Erne County would reach the All-Ireland Junior Championship final, meaning her departure for Australia would not be until August and indeed could be just days after Sunday’s All-Ireland decider against Louth in Croke Park in the first of a triple header (12.45pm).
Her full attention though is firmly on the final and making it count, as she knows that All-Ireland finals do not come around too often.
“I haven’t parked it [Australia] completely, but my main focus has been Fermanagh. Gaelic is my sport, my first love. AFLW is going to be on my mind, and I’ve been kicking both balls about, but my main focus is Fermanagh,” said Bogue.
“When I was signing for North Melbourne, I knew that I would be playing football right up to the last. I had full faith that we would get to where we are with Fermanagh. It was actually one of the discussions I had to have with the team, that I wanted to finish out the championship with Fermanagh. Credit to North Melbourne, they were great; they have been sending me messages wishing me luck and congratulating me. They are very supportive of Gaelic and they know that’s our first sport.
“We have been saying that you just need to embrace the last few weeks as they don’t come around too often. We can’t let nerves, and obviously nerves are natural, take over; we need to just take it all in and enjoy the whole experience of it. Because we don’t know when it’s going to come around again,” she added.
Fermanagh held a meet the players day recently, which coincided with the LGFA’s 50th anniversary celebrations and despite the wet and miserable Saturday afternoon in Ederney, the Fermanagh supporters turned out in their droves to get behind their county’s ladies footballers. It was something that made Bogue reflect and how much the sport has grown and how they have become role model for the younger generation.
“I feel a lot of pride playing for Fermanagh and seeing how excited children are. It’s good that children don’t see the difference between senior, intermediate, and junior; they just see the girls representing Fermanagh ladies and they’re all saying, ‘I want to play for Fermanagh someday.’ I think over the last couple of years, I have really appreciated playing for my county compared to when I first started when I was 16.”
The 23-year-old feels the time is now for Fermanagh to charge through the door back up to intermediate and over the last few years they have been trying to get through it but ultimately come up short, however, with manager CJ McGourty coming in at the start of the season, and breathing fresh life into the set-up and the return of experienced players like overall championship top scorer Eimear Smyth and former AFLW player Joanne Doonan, they have strengthened their position.
“We’ve been knocking at the door these last couple of years, but we have players back this year like Eimear and Joanne. Although there are some missing too, we have a really strong squad there,” Bogue explains.
“I think we deserve it after these last couple of years. Even though we deserve it, it doesn’t mean that we have every right to win. We still have to go out and perform on the day.
“We know that as a team we have to perform; just because we have worked hard doesn’t mean it’s going to be given to us. But I think we know that we need to work hard and if we play the way we can play, there’s no reason we can’t win. It’ll be a tough game and we probably are underdogs going into the final, but we are happy enough to go in as underdogs.”