Galway's Tracey Leonard at peace as she steps away from football

Following 12 years of loyal service to the cause, Galway ladies football stalwart Tracey Leonard believes the time had come to bring her inter-county career to an end.

A TG4 All-Star winner in 2019, Leonard made her senior debut for the Tribeswomen while still a teenager eight years earlier. She continued to feature prominently for her county up until the 2023 season and appeared as a substitute when the westerners lost to Kerry in a Lidl National Football League Division 1 final at Croke Park last April.

She was a regular starter for Galway during their subsequent campaign in the TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship, scoring 1-06 across three outings. However, their year finished in an agonising quarter-final defeat to provincial rivals Mayo at Pearse Stadium in July 15 and this proved to be her final game at the inter-county grade.

"Last year I hummed and hawed about it. My gut was telling me 'no', but the body was telling me ‘yeah, I can go’. I did and I gave it the year. I have no regrets or what not, but for me, a lot of my friends have moved on as well," remarked Leonard, who had confirmed her inter-county retirement earlier this month during an interview with former team-mate Edel Concannon on The Maroon & White Pod.

"Not that I’m using that to say ‘oh just because my friends aren’t there, I’m not playing either’, but when your circle of close friends move on as well, the different generations are coming through there. The decision I made, I’m at peace with.

"Again, you think you’ll never come to that decision, because it’s all you want to do when you’re a young one coming in and looking up to the senior team. All you want to do is play. Time comes for everyone and the time has come for me. I’m happy and at