‘Second stint’ – The Big Interview with Kerry’s Emma Costello

In much the same way that her twin brother Jack Sherwood did at the end of the previous decade, Emma Costello is making the very most of her second stint as a Kerry senior footballer.

By DAIRE WALSH

Having been part of the panel for their All-Ireland SFC success in 2014, Jack found himself outside of the Kingdom set-up in the wake of the following year’s inter-county season. He was subsequently recalled by Kerry men’s boss Peter Keane in 2019 and went on to appear off the bench in the drawn and replayed Sam Maguire Cup deciders against Dublin later on that summer.

His last appearance in the green and gold was in an All-Ireland semi-final encounter with Tyrone at Croke Park in August 2021, when the Munster giants were edged out by their Ulster counterparts after extra-time.

Sherwood’s sister had featured for Kerry in an All-Ireland ladies senior football championship final loss to provincial rivals Cork in 2012, but she also drifted away from the inter-county scene five years later. Yet just a few months after Jack’s time with the Kingdom came to an end, Emma found herself back in the saddle.

“My Mum last year, when I came back and Jack had finished up, she was like ‘one is out and you’re back in again!’ It was like one after the other again. She was like ‘you’re just taking turns now at this stage!’ I hadn’t played since 2017, that summer. I was living in Dublin at that time, so I did two and a bit years commuting from Dublin,” Costello recalled.

“I just was finding it very difficult, trying to balance work. I was kind of falling out of love with it, it was becoming more of a chore to me and I didn’t want that. That’s why I kind of finished in 2017.

“I honestly thought that was it, but we’ve moved since back to Kerry, just before Covid. I was back playing with my home club here (Firies) and they asked me to come in maybe the year before and I was like ‘No, I can’t’. I still wasn’t ready, I don’t think. Then last year when they asked me it was hard to say no, I think. It has been so enjoyable this time.”

Throughout her first spell with Kerry, Emma was playing under her maiden surname of Sherwood. However, in her time away from panel – which included a stint playing alongside multiple Celtic Cross winners Ciara Trant and Noelle Healy at Dublin club St Brigid’s – she got married and was playing under a new name by the time Kerry joint-managers Declan Quill and Darragh Long asked her back in.

While this led to some confusion amongst supporters when she was selected to start their Lidl National Football League Division 2 opener against Tipperary at Fitzgerald Stadium on February 13, 2022, Costello explains it was no different within the Kerry panel itself.

“I think there was one day in pre-season that we had to do some running on our own or something. I can’t remember exactly, but we had to record a time and send it in. One of the girls that I’d know, she was like ‘who is this Emma Costello? She’s posting all these times and not showing up to any trainings!’

“I thought she was joking, it was so funny and she was one of my closest friends from before! It was hilarious. Even other friends would be like ‘oh sorry, you didn’t make the panel, and I’d say ‘lads, I’m playing!’ The name was throwing them.”

The last 18 months have certainly been hectic for Costello, who works as a pharmacist for her cousin – former Kerry footballer Peter Crowley – in Killorglin. In between Lidl NFL Division 2 and 1 successes, she lined out at centre half-back for the Kingdom in their TG4 All-Ireland SFC final reversal to Meath in July of last year.

Despite it being a full decade since their previous outing in a Brendan Martin Cup showpiece, Costello is one of five Kerry players who featured in that 2012 game to still be part of the current set-up. Louise Galvin, Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Lorraine Scanlon and Cáit Lynch are the others (Anna Galvin was also a member of the panel, but didn’t see action on the day) and she believes there is a good balance between the old and the new in the Kingdom squad.

“The first time we were all so young, we didn’t realise it. We thought this was going to be great. We’ll be in finals for the next 10 years! Obviously it’s not like that. We really cherished last year as well. Obviously the result didn’t go our way, but we enjoyed all the build-up and we enjoyed the time after.

“Being older that way, you kind of realise it’s not just an easy feat to get there. How much work goes into it. The younger ones, they’re so mature in their ways that they just took it in their stride. They were fantastic. They’re such a great bunch. Some of the older girls then were great pals.

“I obviously would have been friends with them even when I wasn’t playing. We still would have always kept in touch. It was great to be able to fall in again with them and the young ones, trying to keep up with them!”

Although they had the measure of them in this year’s NFL top-tier in Brosna, this evening will see Kerry taking on Meath in the championship for the first time since last year’s TG4 All-Ireland decider. It is at the quarter-final stage of the Brendan Martin Cup that the teams will clash at Austin Stack Park in Tralee (throw-in 7.30pm) and while the Royals haven’t reached the heights of the past couple of years thus far in 2023, Costello is expecting a tough challenge from the three in-a-row chasing title holders.

“They’re such an experienced team now that this is when they’re really getting going. They peak at the right time. They know how to finish out the season at this time of year. Obviously their league was a bit hit and miss this year with certain games,” Costello added.

“They know when it comes to the crunch how to win games and that will stand to them. We know it’s not going to be an easy game. It will go right down to the wire, last kick I’d say.”