From the All-Ireland final straight to Aussie Rules, crazy week ahead for Meath captain Aoibhin Cleary
Preparations are winding down for Aussie Rules side Richmond, who are due to begin their new season just two weeks from tomorrow.
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The 26-year-old has won two All-Irelands with Meath already in 2021 and 2022
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Cleary made her Meath debut at 16 back in 2016 and has made over 75 appearances since
In February, the Melbourne outfit announced Cleary as their first ever Irish recruit.
However, the Meath captain was adamant that she had business to tend to at home before taking up the two-year contract.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland ladies SFC final against Dublin, she said: 'Before an offer was ever made, I made that quite clear. I had committed to Meath and that wasn't going to change.
'But from the start, they've been brilliant in terms of their support. They've been very supportive, very accommodating and very understanding of the situation.
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'They've obviously been wishing me and the Meath team in general the best over the last few weeks.
'They're delighted to see us in the final and stuff so they've been really supportive. I can only say great things about them.'
Cleary starred when Meath
That loss was then avenged by the Kingdom with back-to-back quarter-final eliminations of the Royals. And Cleary admits that the subsequent depiction of her side as a spent force has been a source of considerable motivation.
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The Donaghmore-Ashbourne half-back said: 'Definitely. I think the belief in our group never wavered and we never thought that. I suppose you would probably hear whispers that maybe that was the case.
'But we knew what we had in the group and in the last two years we haven't really been able to push ourselves to our potential. We knew we always had more to give.
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'I think our management team, our coaches and the girls, we've all just had a really great belief in each other. It doesn't really matter what's going on outside that.'
This year's Brendan Martin Cup race saw
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But this time Shane McCormack's side produced arguably their best display since their last All-Ireland victory to run out 2-12 to 1-9 winners.
Cleary recalled: 'It was great. It was nice to finally get the win and not be knocked out by Kerry after them having knocked us out in the last two years.
'There's definitely that bit of hurt that you do carry. It was just nice to put together a performance that was good enough to get over the line that day. It was definitely a really sweet one.'
Having already suffered National League and
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Cleary said: 'Obviously there's a huge task ahead before we get our hands on that cup but we're just really excited to be back in this position and to be that step closer.
"In the last two years it's been hard being knocked out and then seeing the rest of the Championship progress and not being involved. We definitely had a huge determination to not let that happen again.
'It's just great to still be training over the last few weeks and to still be playing games at this time of the year. There's a lot of girls that weren't involved back in 2021 and '22 who don't have any medals in their pocket yet so it would be great obviously for them as well.'
A new challenge will then await Cleary as she joins the growing Irish contingent in the AFLW.
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The 26-year-old added: 'I'll be heading out pretty quickly afterwards. But I'm not looking to next week too much yet. I'm just focusing on Sunday.'
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