Legendary American Football coach Vince Lombardi once said “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.”
The Dublin Senior Ladies Football team have been hit with some serious knockdowns over the last couple of years, but each time they have pulled themselves up off the canvas, dusted themselves down and gone again.
It’s a testament to the squads and their manager and his backroom teams character that they have reached the All Ireland Final for the third year in a row after suffering devastating defeats in the previous years.
The year before current boss Gregory McGonigle took over the reigns, Dublin suffered a heartbreaking All Ireland quarter final defeat, Dublin built up a healthy lead and looked to be on their way to victory but Cork reeled them back in and snatch the win at the death.
A year later it was more heartbreak this time in the All Ireland Final as Cork overturned a nine point deficit to win by a single point. And then last year it was again Cork who just about came out on top in a titanic tussle to lift their fifth All Ireland title in a row.
Those devastating blows would very well finish off a lesser team, but each time this Dublin squad dug deep, showed tremendous courage and character to keep coming back, to keep believing in their dream, to keep believing they are the best, they are good enough, that they were born to be champions.
And so once again today they find themselves within touching distance of fulfilling their dream of being crowned All Ireland Champions. They find themselves once again up against a formidable foe, a foe that has inflicted those character building defeats on them.
But they arrive today a different team, brimming with a steely determination to fulfil their destiny, to bury the ghosts of past and have shown this season the character and mental strength of champions, of a team that won’t take no for an answer.
As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Champions Are Made From Something They Have Deep Inside Of Them, A Desire, A Dream, A Vision.”
So today Dublin will leave it all out on the Croke Park pitch as they once again dig deep inside, looking to fulfil their vision and live their dream.
