O Leary a relieved man to be back with the Dubs

John O’Leary admits that he was a relieved man to
be back working for Dublin after a troubled two-year
stint with Wicklow’s senior footballers. The legendary
Dubliner, who won the All-Ireland with his native
county in 1995, took over the senior ladies’ team
after Dublin lost last year’s TG4 Ladies All-Ireland
final to Mayo – and is hopeful that the girls can
go one better against Galway on Sunday.

The Dubs still feel aggrieved that they performed
so poorly 12 months ago, and O’Leary has inculcated
in their minds the passion he had when wearing navy
and skyblue. “I just came in, we had four selectors
there – the same backroom team – which was great
from my point of view because I knew nothing about
ladies’ football when it came to playing the opposition,”
he told the Irish Times. “Apart from that nothing’s
really changed.

If you look at last year’s All-Ireland [team] I
think this team has three personnel changes and
four or five positional changes but that’s just
the way the team has evolved. “After having two
years away with Wicklow, it was nice to be back
with a Dublin team so I just found it much easier.
There were things I could lean on, like pride in
the jersey and things I had done as a player and
what it meant to me. Talking about all things Dublin,”
he added.