If for some reason you were driving through Cashel in the early hours of this morning, you’d have had to notice the kitchen lights in the pitch black, the families huddled around the tele, and you might just have guessed there was an AFLW grand final taking place.
It’s not all the time the people of Cashel get up early for foreign sports but when one of their favourite daughters is putting south Tipperary on the map, all routines go out the front door.
Orla O’Dwyer is their Tipperary dual star, a skilful footballer, an influential camogie player and as of this morning, she’s Ireland’s second ever AFLW champion.
The athletic all-rounder played through the Tipperary night with her usual dynamism and intensity, winning rucks, kick-starting attacks and by the end of the fourth quarter, the commentators spelled it out as if you didn’t know already, that she was one of the best players in a Brisbane Lions jersey.
That’s how it’s been all year.
Wake up of a Saturday morning, you’d scroll through the phone, come across the AFLW and most weeks you’d only be a few clicks away from an Aussie journalist. They’d be going on about O’Dwyer’s pace, the Irish woman’s engine or if the game took them there, her golden gun of a left foot.
"She was a slow-starter. The closest we thought she'd get to a career in sport was to be a PE teacher…"
Orla O'Dywer's career shows where a bit of dedication and persistence can take you 👏pic.twitter.com/wRfV0KIoYH
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) April 17, 2021
On Saturday morning, that golden gun set up one of the goals of the AFLW year. Having won a breaking ball around the midfield, you’d swear we were in Semple Stadium, O’Dwyer launched one deep into Adelaide territory before her teammate Courtney Hodder somehow and majestically managed to hook home an early goal.
COURTNEY. HODDER.
How has she kicked this one?!#AFLWGF pic.twitter.com/BOursproHm
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) April 17, 2021
Honestly, what a finish.
Seriously, how? 🤯#AFLWGF pic.twitter.com/z846DSb3wM
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) April 17, 2021
Brisbane were in the driving seat from that moment on and despite some impressive scrapping from Clare’s Ailish Considine – Ireland’s only other AFLW champion (2019) – The Adelaide Crows were outclassed by this impressive Brisbane side.
So there you have it, only a week to the day after south Tipperary won their first ever Grand National, now they can boast about an AFLW champ too. Down in Cashel and over in Killenuale, there has to be something in the water…
