Speaking to DerryGAA.ie, Eoghan Rua's Kelly Maybin puts recent injury strife behind her and looks forward to challenging the reigning All-Ireland Senior Camogie Champions this weekend.
Kelly Maybin takes on the Slaughtneil defence in the 2013 Derry Camogie final at Owenbeg. (photo: Leo McElwee)
Morning rise over the city's amber lit skyline is nothing new to Kelly Maybin. Seated at her desk by 7am most mornings, the Belfast-based engineer finds herself tasked with ensuring smooth running of financial trading systems in bustling London. It's a world of rows of monitors, coffee, phone calls, refining methodology and process; all played out to the tip-tap rhythm of qwerty keyboards. Metaphorically, at least, it's a hundred million miles from the Bann estuary and Pairc Eoghain Rua.
Currently training Tuesday and Friday evenings, as well as Sunday mornings, hard work is not new or something that bothers Maybin. Since she first picked up a hurl in primary three, those precious five minutes 'playing in a wee school tournament' in Dunloy were enough to hook the Eoghan Rua girl for life.
At twenty-seven, Kelly Maybin is the winner of two All-Ireland Intermediate medals, associated county and provincial awards that go with the territory, and is preparing for an All-Ireland senior semi-final against reigning champions Milford from Cork. She has also just realised she has been playing the game she loves continuously for twenty years.
"Makes me sound very old now", she laughs.
In fact, her longest spell out of the game came only last year due to some essential repairs.
"I had major chest surgery on my ribcage in December of 2012 and then I came back to camogie in July [2013]. I missed the first championship game and then that was me back. So I think that's the longest break I've had from camogie.
"The recovery wasn't too bad," she says resolutely. "It was something I put off for a long time. We were knocked out of the championship last year by Screen so I thought 'I'll do it now' and get back into camogie next year."
No sooner was Kelly back playing when injury again struck in the county final against Slaughtneil.
"I remember sort of falling on my wrist. I didn't feel it at the time but remember looking down at it about ten minutes later and there was a big lump on it. It was fine and then we went back into training and it didn't feel right.
Googling 'scaphoid', results relayed the threat of reduced blood supply to the area, setting alarm bells ringing, yet, typically, her first thoughts were on the team and the games ahead.
"About a week later I just thought, right, just go and get it sorted now, thinking that if it wasn't broken I could get back for the Ulster final."
"They x-rayed it and put it in a cast and then I went back a week later and they confirmed the break so I missed the Ulster final." she confirms. "I've been fortunate in my career not to have a lot of injuries but this year it's all come at once. Hopefully that's me all good to go now!"
Teak tough, versatile and with sharp instincts for the game, Maybin played full back on the Eoghan Rua All-Ireland winning team of 2011 before collecting a second winner's medal from the midfield position in 2012 against Galway's Ardrahan.
The desire to win back to back titles is something which drove the team on according to Maybin, and resulted in a moment which will be spoken about for many years to come in Eoghan Rua club circles. Down three points at half time in Croke Park, the midfielder unleashed what has been described as 'an impassioned plea'.
"Oh, the famous quote everyone's talking about!" before quickly offering: "What happens in the changing room stays in the changing room as they say."
Whatever she said, it worked, as the Eoghan Rua girls went out and dominated the second half.
"We just didn't seem to get out of the blocks. At half time I had this strong feeling that having won an All-Ireland the year before at the first time of trying, I really didn't want to then just come back and lose it the following year. Meabh [McGoldrick] said that good teams win one but great teams win two.
"I, and a lot of us, believe we are a great team so we had to get everyone together again, focus and regroup and give it our best shot. Thankfully, we went out and turned it around. So…two All-Irelands, yeah."
Derry County Champions 2013
The theme of focus and the team wanting to prove themselves only to themselves is something that Maybin returns to time after time.
Now Ulster senior champions following a devastating performance against Belfast's Rossa at Owenbeg, the sights have been recalibrated. A senior semi-final awaits but Maybin can trace the origins of the recent successes to a less celebrated occasion.
"At the start of the year we said the Ulster final was where we wanted to be. We'd been knocked out the year before against Screen but we'd had enough of a break to get our hunger back and realise we wanted to push on. We got to the final and it worked out well for us. All the training we had done with Joe and Brendy definitely paid off on the day."
It had been a case of too long on the road, something all great champions will experience at one time or another:
"That [the Screen game] was a tough match. We had been on the go for three years nearly; with two All-Irelands. After the All-Ireland final in 2012 it was only a two week break until the Ulster league started so coming up to the championship that year girls were picking up injuries, were tired and maybe just a bit burnt out."
It was a defeat which ultimately Maybin believes served the group well in the long run and gave them "a chance to regroup, get back and realise that we do want to push on. We got the hunger back for it," she concludes.
The rise and rise of Eoghan Rua camogie under Joe Passmore and Brendan McLernon has been spectacular. In real terms, it has also bonded a group of people together.
"We have a great mix. Aileen in nets and Grace [McMullan] would be, we'll say, at the top of the age range" she laughs.
"Younger girls like Éilis McNamee, Rosanna McAleese, Katie Mullan, Megan Kerr, Clare Tracey, Maria Mooney – all outstanding players. Those players were playing in their first All-Ireland, some of them, when they were 15. Some of them with two All-Ireland medals and they're only coming up to their 18th birthday. Then you've got Grainne, Meabh and Jane – all those county stars. Having that experience and those younger girls training with the more experienced players definitely helps to bring them on – gives them confidence that they can play at senior level."
The coming to the fore of the younger players has coincided with the recent success, but is also in part due to circumstance.
"This year in particular Jane was off having her baby, I was off with my injury, Meabh Dillon was away travelling so it meant some of the older players were away from the team. It gave the younger girls a chance to step up. Some of them are now leaders on the pitch. They're a lot more confident now, a lot more vocal.
"They're a great bunch of girls and not a bit scared to get stuck into some of the older ones either! But it's good; we all push each other on. They used to be timid but they're not now!"
The group is paramount and it has also evolved. The roles have evolved and so to have the people within the group. That's the hallmark of good management and is certainly no fluke.
And so to Milford, what does Maybin know about Sunday's opponents?
"They're All-Ireland champions. That's enough. You don't win an All-Ireland by luck. That's down to hard work and talent. They got their first senior All-Ireland so will be like us at Intermediate level looking to cement that and try to win another one."
"We want to go out and give a good account of ourselves against them. We've been training hard and we're focused. They've got county stars there in Anna Geary and Ashlyn Thompson; everywhere on the pitch they've got outstanding players so it won't be an easy task but hopefully we can do ourselves proud on the day."
Proving it to themselves, there's that theme again. As the American basketball coach John Wooden famously said:
"Never try to be better than someone else. Learn from others, and try to be the best you can be. Success is the by-product of that preparation."
Refining methodology and process, only this time played out to the tick-tock rhythm of ash on leather.
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