SHAKING THE BLUES

Rowe: Watching Royals lift title again gave us time to regroup

- PAT NOLAN

DUBLIN may not have reached last year’s All-Ireland final but, for Carla Rowe, it was an opportunity to rally the troops. 

Each of her previous eight seasons playing with Dublin had concluded with an All-Ireland final, winning four and losing four, but last year they couldn’t even get beyond the quarter-final.

Going to Croke Park to watch Meath and Kerry do battle for the Brendan Martin Cup was more than she could stomach, but she couldn’t totally avoid it either, and so she had the entire Dublin panel come to her home in the Naul.

The weather obliged and 30-odd of them watched it from her garden as Meath completed the two-in-a-row.