‘Family affair’ – The Big Interview with Emma Cronin of Moyle Rovers and Tipperary

In their bid to be crowned Tipperary senior ladies football championship winners for 2024, the Moyle Rovers club in Clonmel will have two generations of the Cronin family to call upon.

By DAIRE WALSH

Still an active playing member in the junior grades – despite celebrating his 56th birthday this year – former Premier County defender Liam Cronin is currently at the managerial helm of the Moyle Rovers LGFA senior side. His daughters Michelle and Emma are two of the players at his disposal with the latter having followed in her father’s footsteps by lining out in the full-back line for Tipperary at inter-county level.

Even though championship success eluded him with the Premier – he was on the side that lost narrowly to Kerry in the Munster SFC final of 1998 – Liam did collect seven county titles in the colours of Moyle Rovers. There are reminders of these triumphs all over the Cronin household and while they have their disagreements at times, Emma recognises that Liam is doing his utmost to ensure his daughter can create some cherished club memories of her own.

“Sometimes it’s hard because we don’t always see eye to eye. My sister plays on the team as well, so there’s two of us against one, which is good. It’s not just me! If there’s any problems going on, it’s usually ‘Emma’ is the first person to get a roar at, but he’s only trying to get the best out of the team. Which is fair enough,” Emma said.

“There’s loads of pictures with the cups that he won for Moyle Rovers. All of his vintage jerseys are at home in frames up on the wall, which is so class with all the medals with them.

“He comes to all of my matches with county and if he sees anything that I could be doing the next day, he’ll let me know. It’s great to see him showing an interest in helping me further my career.”

Eight days after helping Tipperary to preserve their TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship status with a relegation play-off victory over Laois at John Locke Park in Callan on July 6, Cronin was back in club action for Moyle Rovers in a 3-15 to 0-9 home win at the expense of Brian Borus.

Cahir subsequently got the better of them two weeks later, before Rovers got their Senior Championship Group 2 campaign back on track with a local derby triumph against Clonmel Commercials on August 25.

This keeps them firmly in contention for a top-two finish in their group, which would – by extension – grant Rovers a spot in the knockout rounds of the competition. Clonmel are currently in pole position with five points to their name, but they have completed their group stage campaign and will be idle this weekend.

Moyle Rovers on the other hand will make the trip out to Mullinahone tomorrow afternoon for a 3pmstart and with Cahir – who are above Rovers in second place at the moment on head-to-head – paying a visit to Brian Borus at the same time, Cronin recognises there is no room for error on her side’s part.

“It all kind of rides on this weekend. We have to win it to be fair, it’s all up in the air. No one really knows who is going to get out of the group really. There’s a lot of tension in it. We have to win, but I think we’re going really well as a team. All our connections are really strong.”

While Cronin has a familiar face as her club manager, it will be a similar scenario when she returns to the inter-county scene in 2025. Another long-standing servant of Moyle Rovers, Ed Burke was announced as Peter Creedon’s successor in the Tipperary hot seat on July 23.

This news came on the heels of Burke bringing his three-season stint as Carlow senior ladies manager to a close – their Lidl National Football League Division Four final victory in April of this year being the highlight of his time with the Barrowsiders.

Additionally, when Cronin won a TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Football Championship title with Tipperary back in 2019 at Croke Park, Burke served as a team selector under the management of Shane Ronayne. Yet, as Cronin explains, the pair had already been well acquainted by that point.

“Ed actually started coaching officially with my team at U12s in Moyle Rovers. I’d be very familiar with him and I’d say he’s very familiar with me! He did a good few teams all the way up along in Moyle Rovers and he was actually with us last year for Moyle Rovers, the senior team.

“He’s definitely going to really, really push the fitness side of things. We have already gotten a programme to do after the club championship to get ready for it. He has stuff planned months in advance that need to be done and he’s actually very approachable. If you have any problems, go straight up to him and he’ll sort it out whatever way he can.”

Previously a psychology through science student at Maynooth University, Cronin has opted for a change of pace from an educational perspective in more recent times. After a spell as a maths teacher in Killenaule, Co. Tipperary, she returned to Maynooth in order to obtain a higher diploma in maths.

Having ultimately decided that school teaching is something she would like to do for the remainder of her working life, Cronin now finds herself in UCC studying for a Masters In Education.

As part of her placement for the school year, she will be based in St Colman’s College, Fermoy. Given the amount of inter-county stars that have passed through their halls – Cork senior hurler Niall O’Leary is both a past pupil and a current faculty member – Cronin is feeling right at home in this second-level institution.

“It’s a big hurling school, Harty Cup school, which is good. It’s nice to have sport in a school and get involved in that. I’m helping out on the football team, but I’d say the hurling is going to take over!” Cronin added.

“They’ve loads of teams there for the boys. Sport is definitely a huge thing for them and I’d say there will be a lot of activities during the year.”