Armagh's Aoife McCoy: ​‘We can take motivation from the men’s All-Ireland win’

​“The goal is to get that All-Ireland medal,” she said.

“We're right there or thereabouts; we've been in the late stages of the Championship in each of the last few years. We got one step further last year (from quarter-finalists to semi-finalists) but we want to build on that.

“The men proved what can be done. They came from Division 3 to winning the All-Ireland in a few years. How could you not be motivated by that?

“You see what it created in the county – it was absolutely mental in the lead up to the All-Ireland final and in the celebrations.

“You can only take motivation from that. There were a lot of players in that team who had been there for so long finally getting their just rewards, so you would love that for some of the girls on our team.”

McCoy, who won an TG4 2024 All Star award at centre half forward last Saturday evening was proud to pick up the honour, and was also pleased for her team mates Lauren McConville and Grace Ferguson, who joined her on the team.

“Honestly, I was a bit shell-shocked on the night. It's only starting to sink in now,” she said.

“But it was really lovely to receive an accolade at that level. It's great for Dromintee too and everyone at the club is really proud of me too, so it's brilliant.

“I'm delighted for the other girls as well. I think it's great for Armagh and it shows where we are as a team too.

“For Lauren, I think that's her fourth year in a row being nominated, so I'm absolutely delighted to see her get one. And what an accomplishment for Grace in her first year of being nominated – it just goes to show her contribution to the team, so I'm delighted for her. She's an extremely consistent player for us.”

Reflecting on the year, McCoy said that the team were disappointed to miss out on winning the All-Ireland, but having won a first-ever NFL Division 1 title, the Ulster Championship and reaching the last four, there were plenty of positives.

“If you ask anybody what is the main goal, of course we want to win an All-Ireland.

“But at the same time, you have to be grateful for bringing home any sort of medal. We won the Division 1 for the first time ever last year, so that was an amazing achievement and it was great to make a bit of history. “To win the Ulster title was great as well, and we got over the quarter-final stage which we hadn't done for the last couple of years. But unfortunately, we didn't perform as well as we would have wanted to against Kerry on the day. “But I suppose we can take some solace from the fact that Kerry went on to win it. We were beaten by the All-Ireland winners, so that shows that we're not far away.”

The enduring memory of 2024 was that famous day in Croke Park when the Orchard Ladies made history, and McCoy picked that win as her highlight of the campaign.

“I think the league final was the highlight of the year,” said the Dromintee forward.

“At the start of the year our main aim was that we wanted to compete. We wanted to set ourselves up going into the Championship campaign, because that had been our problem over the last few years – going from playing in Division 2 to going into the Championship a bit shell-shocked.

“We just took things game by game, and it was amazing. To win in Croke Park was lovely.”