Cait Devane is still striving for success
By Liam Hogan
In 2020, a video on Youtube went viral. It showed Cait Devane playing for her club Clonoulty/Rossmore. In an attempt to round her opponent, she lost her stick. It occurred close to the sideline where her brother John happened to be standing and almost as if it were planned, he threw her another hurley. She grabbed it without breaking stride, like passing of a baton in an Olympic relay race.
In an interview at the launch of FBD becoming the naming sponsor for Semple Stadium she recalls the moment and the reaction she received from her friends and teammates.
“Unfortunately, when anybody mentions it to me, they say I didn’t actually score,” she laughs.
“It was a cool thing to look back on. At the time I didn’t realise what happened, to think it was recorded and it received so much traction and social media is a bit mad but good at the same time. I would say if we tried it another ten times it wouldn’t come off.”
That is Cait Devane, a seasoned camogie player with club and county. Her 2021 had positives and negatives. Her club reached the county final but lost to Drom & Inch. Meanwhile Tipp reached the semi-final of the League, losing to Kilkenny who scored two late goals to win by the minimum of margins. Then there was the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Galway in Croke Park, Tipp’s first visit to headquarters since 2006. The westerners went on to become All-Ireland champions.
“It was very disappointing in both club and county,” she admits.
“Tipp have made progress. Our consistency has improved in the last couple of years but there are still teams ahead of us and that is proven. I don’t think it’s a mental block.
“We need to learn to improve our game management as I think we are good enough to be at the business end of the year. We are definitely working hard enough to be there. We don’t get to league semis or All-Ireland semis without doing something right. I think if we got over one competition, be it Munster, League or championship, you know success breeds success and if you get into the habit of it then it could be a big one for us.”
And in the semi-final against Galway when Tipp missed many goal chances, for the sake of going for goals where sometimes taking the point might have paid better dividends in the long run.
“We probably had three goal chances at vital stages when there was only two or three points in it,” she recalls.
“We never discussed, do we go for goal or keep the scoreboard ticking? It was just something we tried to play what as in front of us and in fairness, the management were very much allowing us to play what was in front of us.
“Look, it’s sport at the end of the day. Yes, some say why not take your points but hindsight is twenty-twenty but the girls, in the scenario they were in, thought the goal was on and we are encouraged to go with our instinct. They didn’t come off. Perhaps if one of them came off we could have won. It wasn’t something that was discussed before and definitely not after the game.”
Asked as to what motivates her as she has been playing inter-county camogie since 2009, she said that its her love for the game and the friendships, and when she hangs up the stick she hopes to go into coaching on a big scale.
“I can honestly say I love it,” she admits.
“The social aspect of it; I have friends I have played with at club, secondary and college. The girls I have played with on those teams I remain in contact with. And it is to challenge yourself every year.”