Danielle O'Leary hoping league win can aid Kerry in Mayo tussle

Danielle O'Leary was called upon just after half-time on her last appearance at Croke Park – and she bagged 1-02 for Kerry in the Lidl National Football League Division 2 final.

It helped secure a brilliant victory over Armagh and there were no nerves on show from the dynamic 19-year-old – until the post-match interview on TG4.

"I definitely wasn’t used to it at the time, to be honest," said O’Leary.

"I remember standing there before the interview and I actually couldn’t think of a word to say. I had absolutely nothing prepared. I was nearly asking the man beside me, who was giving me the player-of-match plaque, what to say because I hadn’t a notion."

But O’Leary took to it like a duck to water, just like she has throughout her life, always excelling across the board. And her camogie career is the perfect example.

The Rathmore native only started playing the sport in college at MTU before Christmas and she is already on the Kerry camogie team.

"It has been football all my life so I just wanted to start something new. Camogie was supposed to be an off-season thing to keep me busy but once I started I couldn’t stop," said O’Leary.

"Starting out, I knew how to puck the ball but in regards to everything else, I didn’t have an iota. For me. anyway, the most difficult thing was trying to pick up the ball.

"At that time of the year with college, you are facing the winter months so you’d hardly find a piece of grass there to push you along. It was definitely hard for me. I spent a good two or three months at least practicing until I actually got the flow of it. I am able to hit off both sides but that didn’t come in one week either, it took ages, actually longer than what I expected to pick up the skills of it.

"It was lovely going to