Dublin star Nicole Owens admits to doubting herself on latest injury comeback
'I felt like I was miles off, that was probably when doubts started to kick in.'
Whether by accident or design, Nicole Owens has been dodging All-Ireland finals the past couple of years.
Having suffered the second ACL rupture of her career in the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final, the Dublin star concluded that chasing her recovery for the following year’s Championship wasn’t worth the risk.
And so she took herself off to New Zealand and Australia last summer. All was going well until Dublin reached the All-Ireland final without her and the pangs of regret started to hit home.
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“I had worked out that ACLs are nine months and you don't want to be pushing back too much more past that,” she explained.
“You really want to give it a year so that would have taken me up to June/July so I made the decision not to go back in and not be involved with the group which I think I needed from a mental perspective, particularly after the previous year which was so frustrating.
“I was happy with that decision but then when you watch them win you're a bit, like, 'awwh!'”
She was in Australia at the time but watched the final as Dublin turned the tables on Kerry.
“That to me was great because I seen girls like Niamh Crowley and Niamh Donlon, who I had never played with, seeing the two of them stepping up, it was unbelievable, like, kids!
“That’s what I call them to be honest, so it was great to see that from the perspective of I knew I was coming back this year so it was great to see people standing up. But obviously bittersweet as well not to be involved, always.”
Having gone through the ACL recovery process before, Owens was confident that she would get back as she ticked off the various stages of her rehabilitation, but the doubts surfaced once she resumed full training.
“I felt like I was miles off, that was probably when doubts started to kick in.
“I have a lot of confidence in my own ability because I know how much work I’ve put in so that was a bit of a… there was a few weeks there where I was kind of emotional about because I was like, ‘Maybe I’m not going to get up to that standard’.
“Then I felt like I got there by the end of the year. It’s just unfortunate that our year ended a bit sooner than we would have hoped.”
She’s referring to a surprise quarter-final loss to Galway, who went on to lose to Kerry in last Sunday’s final, a game which Owens studiously avoided.
“I did the very classic sore loser thing and just completely avoided it. It was a bank holiday and I went to a little cabin in Wicklow and avoided football completely. It just happened to coincide with the match.
“I'll watch it back at some point, that match, I know it was pretty convincing for Kerry, that seems to be the main thing to take away from it.”
Dublin looked to be in position to kick on and mount a serious defence of their title at least this year, but Owens reflects on the Galway game as one that was left behind.
“I think Galway on the day they beat us, not to take away from Galway, but I think we beat ourselves to a large extent. The levels of negative turn-overs, I don't know the final stats but I know we probably missed all of our KPIs, particularly in the negative turnovers perspective.
“We gave them back oxygen constantly and we still should have won it. It probably shouldn't have gone to extra-time at all. So I think, yeah, it's less about seeing them getting beaten comprehensively and more that we didn't turn up on the day. They turned up slightly more than we did.”
Win or lose, there is annual speculation now around whether Mick Bohan, who has just completed his eighth season at the helm, will continue as manager.
“I've been playing under Mick for seven or eight years now and one thing I've learned not to do is to try and second-guess Mick. I don't know.
“He's been unbelievable for us. He came in when we had lost three All-Irelands in a row and he picked up a team off the ground that was in a bad way mentally and built our processes and the way we paly and our structure.
“We've had a lot of people retire over the last few years and last year he rebuilt a team with a lot of girls who hadn't stepped up to senior level before. I think he's done a lot regardless of what happens now.
“He's earned the right to make that decision himself as to whether he wants to come back or not. As far as I'm aware he has the support of the county board so we'll see.”
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