By DAIRE WALSH
THE next seven days are set to be hectic ones in the life of Westmeath footballer Lucy Power as she aims to maintain her challenge for a double club championship success within the Lake County.
This weekend, the primary school teacher is set to feature for Clonkill in their Westmeath Camogie Senior ‘A’ Championship semi-final clash against Drumraney in Raharney. Fast forward to next Saturday (September 28) and Power will then find herself donning the colours of The Downs in their penultimate round encounter against St Loman’s in the Village Barn Senior Football Championship.
Before advancing to the final-four of the latter competition, The Downs had to negotiate no fewer than seven round robin games in as many weeks. All bar two of these fixtures took place on a Thursday evening, as part of an arrangement that was designed to allow dual club stars like Power to have extra rest periods in between games.
This still led to her playing a grand total of 11 games in just seven weeks, but given how much she enjoys lining out for both teams, it is something Power was more than happy to do.
“I had a lot of football games on Thursday and I would have had to play a round of championship camogie then on the Sunday as well. It’s to facilitate dual players to a certain point. You’ve two days recovery in between games,” Lucy explained.
“I think that is why they’re half on Thursdays as well with the way they want you to have seven games in the group championship. I suppose if you were to have seven games and then look at running a camogie senior championship alongside that, you’d be a long time running off championships. If you were to go week in, week out.
“The Thursdays were grand, but there’s a lot to be said for a Saturday game as well. It was nice at the weekend, but we’ve a lot of girls working at weekends and that. It’s going well, I’ve two semi-finals to look forward to. They won’t be easy this weekend either, Drumraney are a good side. Two tough matches coming up now in the next few weeks.”
Lucy Power receives her Division 2 top player award from Mícheál Naughton, Ladies Gaelic Football Association President, left, and Joe Mooney, Senior Partnerships Manager, Lidl Ireland (Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile)
Because there is only a distance of approximately five mile between the two clubs, any showdown between The Downs and St Loman’s has a huge level of intrigue. The Downs enjoyed a 2-12 to 0-10 win over their near rivals when they met in round two of this year’s championship and also recorded a 2-8 to 2-5 triumph when the sides squared off at the semi-final stage in 2023.
Lucy is also close to a number of Loman’s players that are currently part of the Westmeath inter-county set-up – which adds even further spice to their forthcoming meeting.
“Vicky Carr would be a best friend of mine. We would have gone to college together. We’d be great pals off the field as well. She plays with Loman’s and Lucy McCartan as well would be another great friend of mine down through the years. Some of my best friends play with Loman’s and I’m lucky enough to play with them with Westmeath.
“Playing against them is a different story, but we’re not too far at all in terms of distance or anything. The two clubs are close. We’re still friends anyway after all the games, which is always a good sign!
“Loman’s are a brilliant team. Even though we did beat them early on in the championship, as of now they are top of the table and they’re top of the table for a reason. We’d be under no illusions going into the semi-final, how hard it is going to be. They played a similar style of football to ourselves, an attacking game.”
When The Downs men’s team claim their 10th Westmeath senior football championship title back in 2022, Power’s father Dermot was on board as a selector. 12 months later, Lucy was also featuring in a top-tier decider with the club against Milltown and gave her side the best possible start to the proceedings by sensationally rattling the net with just 15 seconds gone on the clock.
They may have ended on the wrong side of a 2-15 to 3-3 final scoreline, but Power still believes there is a lot The Downs can take from their first-ever appearance in a Westmeath LGFA senior showpiece.
“I’m a full-back with Westmeath, but I was full-forward that day with The Downs. I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but last year against Milltown, it was the club’s first ever senior county final. It was a huge spectacle and it was a great experience for us.
“Although the result didn’t go our way, we learnt a lot from it. Hopefully, if we’re lucky enough to get into a senior final this year, we can take some learnings from last year as well. Milltown are a very seasoned and well experienced team, so it was a tough task.”
The elder Power was also part of the Westmeath ladies management team in 2024 – a year that ended with the Lake County exiting the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Football Championship with an extra-time quarter-final defeat to provincial rivals Wexford.
Before that, the younger Power started all seven games as Westmeath achieved a respectable fourth-place finish in Division 2 of the Lidl National Football League.
There has been something of a transition within the Westmeath squad since their All-Ireland intermediate title win at the expense of Wexford in 2021 as Power was one of just six survivors from that day’s starting line-up to be included in the first 15 for their last-eight clash against the same county earlier this year. Considering the amount of new faces that have been introduced to the squad in recent times, Power remains extremely hopeful heading into the 2025 inter-county season.
“Last year was a great year for us. I think getting to the quarter-final, although we mightn’t have progressed in terms of how far we got in the championship in comparison to the year previous, we definitely have learnt a lot. I think as a team, we got that opportunity to get new players in, which will help the panel grow and hopefully build on for next year,” Lucy added.
Lucy celebrates at the final whistle of the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Intermediate Football Championship Final match between Westmeath and Wexford at Croke Park (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)
