7 days ago
'It's been a mad year' - Wedding and All-Ireland joy for Galway's Star of County Down
SHE CAN'T QUITE decide between her wedding and her All-Ireland medal as to which is the bigger highlight of 2025. Enjoying both in the same year is certainly something to savour.
'Maybe ask me again during the week,' Niamh Mallon smiles when asked to choose after playing her part in Galway's one-point victory over Cork in Croke Park.
Originally from Down, Mallon is in just her second season with Cathal Murray's side. And after her first senior All-Ireland final ended in heartache against the same opposition last year, her point in the 40th minute of the 2025 decider helped ensure Galway overturned the result this time around.
'It's been massive. I'm just delighted for the group and delighted for Cathal. It's easy for people to have pops at management teams and the way they set teams up but the time and effort that that group has put into us has been massive since the turn of January.
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'And they got their just rewards today. I'm just delighted to be part of the group and very grateful.'
Mallon captained Down to a junior All-Ireland title in 2014 at just 19, and added intermediate honours in 2020 after producing a Player of the Match performance in the final against Antrim.
A senior success with Galway gives her the clean sweep of All-Ireland medals but she remembered her achievements with her native county when speaking to Off The Ball after the game.
'It's been a year of emotions, I got married in March, I lost my grandmother in March'
'It's been a long time coming for this group'
A jubilant Niamh Mallon after her side won the All Ireland Senior Camogie title this afternoon. — Off The Ball (@offtheball) August 10, 2025
'Those days are right up there as well,' she explained.
In that interview, Mallon also mentioned that her grandmother passed away in March, which was the same month that she got married. She touched on that sense of emotion again when she spoke to the media after the game.
She also circled back to the mental struggles she experienced in her first season with Galway last year, something she opened up about ahead of the All-Ireland final.
'It's been a mad year, it's been great. We'll enjoy tonight.
'I spoke before after the Tipp [All-Ireland semi-final] game, that it was something in my own head. It was something I'd never experienced in a camogie dressing room in 10, 15 years and it was something I had to get over.
'I think the experience of coming into my first [senior] All-Ireland final was something I needed to work through. I think the experience of last year stood to me today. Just very grateful to the group.'
The physicality of the game has become a major talking point in the aftermath of Galway's triumph. Camogie referees have been criticised in the past for not facilitating a free-flowing contest in All-Ireland finals, while Justin Heffernan has also been scrutinised for applying the rules more strictly during yesterday's game.
His decision to give Hannah Looney a straight red card has also been quite divisive.
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Mallon, however, feels the officiating was fair overall.
'He let the game go and it really contributed to a really good game. There were a few questionable decisions last year coming down the stretch on both sides. I think he did a great job today to let the game flow. You got a spectacle out of it.
'We really went after stopping their running game at source. If they get out, they're a fierce dangerous side. Trying to not let them build from the back and give them a platform, particularly in that middle third.
'That's where they got us last year.'
