Irish Times/Vhi Healthcare Sportswoman Award for September:After Wexford won their first camogie senior All-Ireland title in 32 years in early September, with a shock victory over reigning champions Cork, it promised, briefly, to be an uncomplicated month for the judging panel. All we had to do was decide which member of the team should take our award, and after a while we whittled the short-list down to 16, ie the entire starting line-up plus substitute Katrina Parrock.
We were still working on that challenge when along came the Cork footballers later in the month, their defeat of Mayo in their final making them only the second county, after Kerry, to complete a three-in-a-row.
In the end, then, it proved simply impossible to separate the success of the Wexford camogie team and the Cork footballers, so we opted for a joint award, as we did earlier in the year when the golfing sisters from Cavan, Lisa and Leona Maguire, as is often the case with twins, couldn't be separated either.
Our next task was to choose one player from each team - so much for an uncomplicated month. Even Stellah Sinnott, the Wexford manager who was a member of the team the last time her county reached an All-Ireland final (in 1994), struggled to single out individuals after the game.
Noeleen Lambert, Avis Nolan, Bronagh Furlong and Rose Marie Breen were all candidates, as was Una Leacy whose two first-half goals sent Wexford on their way. But pipping her team-mates to the award is Una's sister Mary, captain of the team, and daughter of three-times All-Ireland winner Margaret (nee O'Leary), who was included in the camogie team of the century.
Mary produced a quite inspirational display at the back for Wexford, helping reduce Cork's celebrated attack to just three points in the first half. Her performance in the final came as no surprise to those familiar with her form. She was also credited by the Wexford management for delivering so rousing a half-time speech to the players their success was nigh on inevitable. What did she say exactly?
"I honestly can't remember," she told us yesterday, "but there was never any shortage of belief. They'd beaten us a couple of times earlier in the year, but we beat them in May (4-12 to 0-14 in the opening round of the Championship), so we had no doubts we could it.
"It was all just magical, really. The homecoming on the Monday was just as special, we couldn't believe the crowds," she said. "Since then we've been taking the cup around to the schools and that's been brilliant, the kids' eyes just light up when they see it."
Valerie Mulcahy has been no less busy since the football final, like Leacy combining All-Ireland winning celebrations with club duties. Her two goals against Mayo, in a 2-11 to 2-6 win, completed a season with Cork that saw her rival the great Cora Staunton in the scoring stakes. By then she'd already scored 2-3 in the quarter-final against Dublin, followed by 2-2 in the semi-final defeat of Laois.
Briege Corkery, our 2005 Sportswoman of the Year, Angela Walsh, Rena Buckley, Brid Stack, Nollaig Cleary, Amanda Murphy and captain Juliet Murphy, to name but seven, would have been worthy winners too, all outstanding in the final, but it's time to acknowledge Mulcahy, a former soccer international, as one of the greats of the women's game.
MONTHLY WINNERS SO FAR
January - Marie Breen (basketball): Captained Glanmire to victory in the Superleague National Cup final against defending champions University of Limerick - scored 29 points and was named the final's "Most Valuable Player".
February - Chloe Magee (badminton): The Swedish-based Donegal teenager helped Ireland to the final of the Helvetia Cup, and won the singles and doubles titles at the national championships.
March - Nina Carberry (horse racing): Two years after becoming the first woman since 1987 to win a professional race at the Cheltenham Festival Carberry did it again, winning the Sporting Index Handicap Chase on Heads Onthe Ground.
April - Emma Byrne (soccer): Arsenal's women won every competition they entered last season, including the Uefa Cup - one of their stars was Byrne, the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper.
May - Lisa and Leona Maguire (golf): The 12-year-old twins from Cavan shared our May award after Leona won the Hermitage Scratch Cup and Lisa reached the semi-finals of the Irish Close at Lahinch.
June - Jessica Kürten (equestrian): Dropped out of the world top 10 after a quiet start to the year but embarked on a run of form in April that lifted her back to third.
July - Eileen O'Keeffe (athletics): The hammer thrower broke the 70-metre mark five times at the National Senior Track and Field Championship, where she won her seventh successive title, and went on to finish sixth at the World Championships in Osaka.
August - Joanne Cuddihy (athletics): At the World Championships in Osaka the 23-year-old from Kilkenny became the first Irish woman to run under 51 seconds in the 400 metres, her time of 50.73 beating Karen Shinkins' eight-year-old Irish record.
