The final turn in the road: Laura Agnew looks ahead to Sunday in Croke Park

Laura Agnew is enjoying her new wing back role as Antrim chase All Ireland glory on Sunday. She sat down with Michael McMullan

SHE might have started slightly later than some of her Antrim teammates but it has always been sport with Laura Agnew.

Speaking nine days out from Antrim Ladies’ latest All-Ireland crusade, climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand is all that matters.

Having experienced the hurt of watching Louth take home the silver in last year’s Junior showdown, the Saffrons are heading towards the season’s biggest Sunday again.

Standing in their way is a Carlow team who have won all 17 games they’ve played this season.

McShane looks ahead to his role as Antrim senior manager

The Drip café on Belfast’s Ormeau Road is bustling but Agnew’s full focus is on making sure she’s primed for Sunday week.

Everything else is parked for now. Having graduated from Queen’s University in Biomedical Sciences, beyond Sunday there is a holiday on the horizon.

She hopes there won’t be a replay that will demand a reshuffle. Another spinning plate is a waiting game on her application to study Medicine in Dublin, Cork or Galway.

Having operated in a free role around midfield last season, Agnew is thriving in a more defined role at wing-back.

She had a different start to a footballing career than most, having not picked up a ball until Primary Four. Later on, she moved on to Methody College, a Belfast hotbed for rugby.

Her sport at school was netball but football pulled the heart strings more. With the talent to back it up, she moved up through Antrim’s Development squads.

“I took netball quite seriously; I played for Northern Ireland U17 and I still play (for the Kingsway club) during the winter to keep me ticking over,” she added.

When they were in Australia, Ballymena man Damien Agnew met his wife Hilary, a native of Renmore on the outskirts of Galway City.

Back in Ireland, they settled in Belfast. Laura is the youngest, the only sister of Ronan and Niall.

“When I was younger, I was in involved in all the sports I could possibly do,” she recalls.

DADDY’S GIRL…Laura Agnew pictured with her father after Antrim’s semi-final win over Sligo

“I was in everything, swimming, tennis, all sorts of things. My brothers played everything as well – it was just a sporty family.”

Her earliest footballing memory was the St Brigid’s Cúl Camps where she met friends for life, such as Theresa Mellon who will also run out of the Hogan Stand tunnel on Sunday.

Having dabbled in many sports, by the minor grade it was time to hone fully in one. Gaelic football was the winner.

“I kept on the netball because I had to do something in school and was able to balance them well enough,” she points out.

“After U17, the year I played with Northern Ireland, I decided to call quits on netball and it has been Gaelic from there.”

There were plenty of players who doubled up between the two including her Antrim teammate Anna Mulholland.

The fitness work and fielding a ball was transferrable to football but it was essentially a different sport.

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When she an impressionable teenager, Antrim seniors were playing in Croke Park. It was an attraction. There was the joy of watching them take home the title in 2022 after a replay.

“Going up through the development path, that was just always your end goal, to get starting on the senior team,” Agnew said.

“We’d always go to watch the finals in Croke Park. There was a lot of exposure to it and a few of the Antrim players were playing for my club team and I played along with them. I just remember thinking it would be class to be out there one day.”

The call came from then manager Emma Kelly ahead of the 2023 season but injury forced her out the following year.

“I had tendinitis in my knee and couldn’t get rid of it,” she pointed out.

“I was out for around nine or ten months. Initially, I did play through it at university but I just gave way after playing too much.”

Instead of an operation, Agnew went down the path of steroid injections. In the end, she was measured up for orthotics for her shoes and the pain disappeared.

HANG TIME…Laura Agnew (right) also plays netball

While joining a county senior panel can be daunting for a young player, having the St Brigid’s faces helped.

“A few of us from minors went up together. Maria O’Neill and Anna Mulholland were there too.

“It was nice to have them, we were all in the same boat, but everyone was really welcoming, so we fitted in nicely.”

There was no expectation of a starting place in the beginning. It was all about bedding in, adjusting to the new level of football and training.

It has been a ship sailing in the right direction this season. After clinching promotion to Division Two with literally the last play of the campaign, Antrim went on to retain their Ulster Junior title.

Despite defeat at the hands of neighbours Derry in the All-Ireland Junior Championship opener, they bounced back to top their group and are now one game away from glory. Agnew credits their latest management team of Mickey Devlin and Chris Scullion as helping with the progress over the last two seasons.

“It gives everyone a lift,” she said of the fresh start. “Everyone has got their chance to prove their point. From there, everyone’s just really been putting the work in.

“It’s just coming together. Everyone’s got a collective goal in mind.”

Antrim’s initial goal was to stabilise their position in Division Three and build from there.

Being in a higher league challenged them and coming up against different teams was welcome after rubbing shoulders with many of the Junior Championship teams in Division Four last season.

“It was definitely really intense,” Agnew added. “Every week you were working towards the next game and you didn’t know if you were going to be winning or losing. I think that just pushed us on in that sense.”

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How often have we heard the phrase that you have to lose one to win one? It’s not always the true but it’s a narrative often spun after a disappointing final defeat.

Antrim will hope it’s true after losing to Louth in last year’s All-Ireland final after all the progress made by reaching the decider.

“It was in reach, I don’t know what happened,” Agnew said, looking back at their 0-13 to 1-8 defeat.

An early goal from captain Bronagh Devlin gave them an early lead but Louth – helped by 0-4 from star player Kate Flood – left Croke Park victorious.

“I suppose the nerves probably got to a few of us,” Agnew added. “A good few of the girls had played there once or twice.

“It was my first year, so it was definitely pretty nerve-wracking. We just weren’t ourselves in the first half, and I think the heads dropped.”

LAST TIME…Laura Agnew in action during last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Louth

Antrim never recovered from trailing by a point at half-time with Louth turning up the heat in the second half. That said, it was still only a two-point defeat. They were close but narrow defeats often sting most.

“A few of the girls and myself went off on a holiday pretty much straight after,” Agnew said of how they hit the reset button.

“That was nice to clear the head and we didn’t have much time to sit at home and sulk about it

“In that sense, that really helped us. It wouldn’t have been much fun if I was sitting at home with my own watching the game.”

Being in each other’s company helped and there was also the club championship to bring a new sporting focus.

It all fed into progressing further this season. Down were narrowly beaten by Fermanagh in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final.

The fact Antrim beat both teams this year points to a level they can aim for on the other side of this weekend in Croke Park.

It will have to wait. They need to keep their eyes locked in on Carlow and they’ll look to take the learnings from a surprise defeat to Derry in the first group game.

Antrim had a winning record against the improving Oakleafers beforehand, and their defeat has been a wake-up call of sorts.

The Saffrons were short a handful of players which should have sharpened the focus. Was there complacency?

“We had done a good bit of work to try and make sure that wasn’t the case,” Agnew continued.

“It’s hard to try to consistently beat a team who’s going to know your sort of game plans at that stage. They came out all guns blazing, and maybe we weren’t prepared for that.

“Training was pretty tough the weekend after. We got the legs run off us. I think it did linger for a while but I think it gave us like the kick we sort of needed because maybe we were kind of a bit like stagnant at that stage,”

Agnew admits Derry were the better team on the day but was still a the shock the system needed and they haven’t looked back.

Sunday’s opponents Carlow have been on their own journey, winning all their games this season on the way to Division Four and Leinster Championship glory.

Last week was about getting familiar to what Carlow can bring. A look into their semi-final win over Derry will flag up three quickfire goals that laid their path to HQ this Sunday.

“They seem to be doing really well this year, so we’ll definitely be going in with our guards up,” Agnew said, also pointing out the value of last year’s experience at Croke Park

When the bus pulls up on Sunday, aside from a few newcomers on the panel, there won’t be that giddiness that comes from playing there for the first time.

All the energy can be focused on tactics, important roles and getting to the pitch of the game.

“I am feeling a lot more confident about it,” Agnew said. “Hopefully it won’t be as nerve-wracking but the buzz is great. I think everyone’s on a high and we’re looking forward to it.”

It’s also been three weeks since their win over Sligo after a season of playing week-on-week or every second weekend.

Week one was about getting back to regular training. Last week saw things ramp up again.

Then comes that balance between being excited and letting excitement consume the buildup.

Antrim will begin 2027 in Division Two. They’ll hope to finish this year with the final piece of silverware they can get their hands on, having won the others. Carlow have yet to be beaten. Something has to give.