By Johnathon Pearl
Meath Ladies GAA footballer Emma Duggan was nominated for the 2022 TG4 Player’ Player of the Year award, following a stellar season.
Despite her success at both club and county level, Duggan was pipped to the award by Donegal’s Niamh McLoughlin.
Duggan – who is clubmates with previous POTY winner, and current AFL player Vicki Wall – starred as Meath completed back-to-back All-Ireland wins beating Kerry. An icon in football in Ireland, Duggan kicked 1-12 in this year’s championship.
Reflecting on the year, Duggan expressed her delight at starring in another All-Ireland final.
‘’It was just great to be back on that stage competing for another All-Ireland. I would say a lot of people had sort of wondered if we could do it again after being a bit of a surprise package last year,” Duggan said.
“We weren’t really playing as well as we could have, certainly at the start of the year, but as the year went on, we got better and better.”
Meath’s All-Ireland bid had stuttered with a draw to Armagh, meaning they would face Galway in the quarter-final in Tullamore. With less than 10 seconds left on the clock and the game level, Duggan stepped up and scored a ‘buzzer beater’ point to win the game.
‘’It was a great win in Tullamore, we always knew that Galway were going to be such a tough team to play against and it went right down to the wire,” Duggan said.
“The ball kind of just came to me and I didn’t really have a lot of time to think about what I was going to do with it, I was just delighted when I saw it went over, even though it held in the air for a long time,” she added.
Beating Donegal in the semi final set up a clash with Kerry in the final, which Meath would later win in style. Duggan’s well rounded performance contributed to their nine-point win.
‘’Kind of like our year, we got better as the game went on. We obviously didn’t start well but the goals in the second half gave us a bit of a cushion,” Duggan said.
‘’I remember having the ball as the clock was ticking down. Honestly, it’s one of the best feelings ever to know all the hard work has paid off.”
Following the Championship success, Duggan also won her first Senior Division One league title, beating Donegal on a scoreline of 2-8 to 1-9. It completed all the accolades she could win after winning both trophies at Junior and Intermediate levels.
‘’The league was a weird one because we were coming back from being All-Ireland champions. We had two great games with Dublin and then a really close battle with Donegal in the final,” Duggan said.
After the Inter-County season, Duggan won her third Meath ladies final in a row with her local club Dunboyne, scoring 1-9 in the decider. A hectic season came to an end, finishing with her third title.
Duggan told thecity.ie of her delight at winning yet another County title:
‘’To win three-in-a-row with Dunboyne was a special feeling. We weren’t great in the final, but we got the job done against a really good Dunshaughlin team and that’s all that matters.”