‘No better way than going back straight into playing Dublin the first match. Honestly, really looking forward to it’
BY DAIRE WALSH
FOLLOWING a prolonged absence, Mayo’s Ciara Whyte has spent the past few weeks gradually readjusting to the life of an inter-county footballer.
A regular fixture for the Connacht county over the course of several years, Whyte subsequently journeyed across the water in 2023 to study for a masters in physiotherapy at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. She also worked part-time in the Scottish city as a sports massage therapist in a private physio clinic, before returning home on a permanent basis after her graduation from Robert Gordon towards the tail end of 2024.
It was around this point that Whyte spoke to Mayo ladies manager (and her fellow Ballina native) Liam McHale about rejoining the county panel and she soon found herself back in pre-season training for the green and red’s forthcoming campaign in Division One of the Lidl National Football League.
“I came back to Ballina and I always knew I was going to see if they’d have me back, when I came back. I was chatting to Liam and I said I’d give it a go. I was a bit apprehensive because I hadn’t been there for two seasons, so I knew my body probably would be in a bit of a state of shock initially,” Whyte explained.
“I went back in and it’s looking good so far. The body was in a little bit of a state for the first few weeks, but I’m getting back into things now. I actually never worked with Liam before and there’s a good few now from Ballina in there, which didn’t used to be the case.
“When I came in, I didn’t really know him, I had never met him before. He’s really open and he’s really friendly. I think that works really well with the team we have at the minute. It’s a learning environment and it’s really open. There’s just not a lot of negativity, it’s very positive.”
While she did transfer from her home club of Kilmoremoy to Dalriada GFC in the north east of Scotland in June 2023, Whyte’s main focus was on studies and work rather than football during her time in the UK. Yet as she explains, the former TUS Athlone student found ways to maintain an active lifestyle in Aberdeen.
“I never played any games with them. I had been training with them, but the nature of my course that I was doing, I genuinely just felt that I didn’t have the time to do it and give my 100% to it. I just kind of went a few times, but then just said I’d take a step back instead of coming in and out.
“You don’t want to string anyone along. I just said I’d take that time to just focus on studying and everything like that. You find yourself as an adult and you find out what you like and what you don’t like doing. I got into things like rock climbing and finding other sports that you wouldn’t get a chance to do really if you’re playing football all the time.”
Ciara Whyte in action against Hannah Tyrrell of Dublin during the TG4 All-Ireland SFC Group A Round 3 match between Dublin and Mayo in Portlaoise (Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile)
Despite still being eligible for minor football the following year, Whyte was introduced to the Mayo senior panel in 2017 and quickly found her feet at the highest grade of the LGFA. On September 24 of that year, she was named at left half-forward as the westerners lost out to Dublin in a TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship final that was played in front of a then-record crowd of 46,286 at Croke Park.
Having been one of the newest additions to the squad back then, Whyte is remarkably the only one of the 19 players that featured for Mayo on that day to still be part of the current set-up. It is a relatively young panel of players that McHale is calling upon for 2025 and Whyte is looking to be a guiding force for them as they attempt to navigate their way through the upcoming season of action.
“It’s almost a shame in a way that I was so young at the time when that experience happened. Because looking back on it, I’d do anything to be able to relive it and appreciate it. I came up mid-season and then all of a sudden, ‘Oh boom, we’re into championship. All-Ireland semi-final, grand okay’ and then an All-Ireland final in Croke Park.
“I’m thinking, ‘I’ve never played in front of more than maybe 200 people in my life’ and then there was [just under] 47,000 at the final. I’m lucky I have that experience to want to go back to and to know what it’s like.
“I don’t think anyone else on the team has, so I suppose that gives me the confidence to really step up as a leader this year and be able to take the girls through it. Against the big teams like Dublin and help out in terms of how not to let it pass you by in a way.”
Whyte and her youthful colleagues will get an immediate test in that respect at the end of this month as they are set to kick-start their Lidl NFL Division One campaign away to Dublin on January 25.
There will be plenty of eyes on this game as the Jackies are now under the new joint management of Paul Casey and Derek Murray after their predecessor Mick Bohan brought a trophy-laden eight season spell at the Sky Blues helm to a close last November.
Although this might seem like a difficult challenge on paper for McHale’s young guns, Whyte – whose last championship appearance was in an All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kerry in July 2022 – is excited to see how Mayo shape up against high-calibre opposition.
“No better way than going back straight into playing Dublin the first match. Honestly, really looking forward to it. Obviously I went back just this year and I was a bit tentative going back because obviously it’s a new environment,” Whyte added.
“It’s actually nice to have quite a new amount of faces there just to push us on a bit and realise there is a new generation coming up. You can’t just be complacent. That is exactly what we needed coming into the Dublin game. Preparation is going well, feeling good. It’s coming together nicely.”
Ciara Whyte of TUS Midlands shoots under pressure from Ella Miller of St Mary’s, Belfast during the Yoplait LGFA Lynch Cup Final (Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile)
