{"id":361581,"date":"2026-03-23T22:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361581\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:58:10","slug":"darcy-driven-to-succeed-with-spanish-point-in-all-ireland-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361581\/","title":{"rendered":"Darcy driven to succeed with Spanish Point in All-Ireland final"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Joint captain of the St Joseph\u2019s Spanish Point ladies football team, Kayla Darcy.\u00a0Photograph: John Sheridan<\/p>\n

SPURRED on by the heartache of successive semi-final defeats, St Joseph\u2019s Spanish Point led by joint captain Kayla Darcy are determined to grab their shot at All-Ireland glory.<\/p>\n

Kayla had the assist with a long-range delivery for Allisha Ryan\u2019s dramatic last-gasp goal in extra time for Spanish Point to pip Moate Community School in the semi-final and now they stand sixty minutes from All-Ireland glory.<\/p>\n

Reaching the big day is testament to the hard work that has gone into ladies football in the school over the last three years particularly, Kayla felt. \u201cIt is amazing to get here, to be involved the last two years and getting to All-Ireland semi-finals but then falling short at the last hurdle to miss out on the final so getting here is great. We\u2019ve been putting in the work since September, getting up early, weekend trainings during Mid-Term breaks, the work has been put in, we didn\u2019t get here because nothing happened, we actually put in the work so it has been tough but it\u2019s been worth it\u201d.<\/p>\n

These hard yards include training sessions before school and during the holidays. \u201cWe can be little bit tired in school after the early morning sessions, there is a lot going on but it is good to get it out of the way and have everyone focused for the rest of the day, we get treated very well, we get protein shakes and protein balls after training but no less homework\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said they were spurred on back to back losses at the semi-final stage to reach the big day. \u201cThe semi-final defeats did spur us on a lot. We didn\u2019t want to be in the same position that we were the last two years, we really didn\u2019t want to be there, we were lucky enough with a goal in the last minute to get over the line in extra time, the semi-final defeats really did drive us on to win in extra time and we really wanted it this year and to not experience the pain of losing in a semi-final\u201d.<\/p>\n

A starting member of the school\u2019s senior side for the past three seasons, Kayla has gone from a substitute during her Junior Certificate year to now joint captain as St Joseph\u2019s go in search of a historic victory. \u201cI\u2019m one of the oldest ones,\u201d she remarked of her role within the panel. \u201cI\u2019m the joint captain with Aoibheann, we\u2019ve been trying to drive on the younger players because we\u2019ve been there the last two years, we know the younger players need support and we\u2019ve been trying to give them that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kayla Darcy.<\/p>\n

St Joseph\u2019s know they must keep fighting until the final whistle and that is a message preached by coach Eimear Considine, Darcy outlined. \u201cEimear Considine is always saying \u2018it is never over until it is actually over\u2019 and to keep fighting, we do drills in training, they might seem like silly drills but they actually work to show the younger players it is not over until it is over\u201d.<\/p>\n

Darcy who turns eighteen in May comes from plenty of football pedigree with her uncle Evan a nine-time Clare SFC winner with Kilmurry Ibrickane and one of the most respected coaches in the county. \u201cWe\u2019d be a strong football family, my uncle Evan played with Kilmurry Ibrickane for years, my grandfather is a big football fan too,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Wing forward on the Kilmurry Ibrickane side which won a first-ever Clare LGFA senior championship when beating Doora\/Barefield 3-8 1-10 in October 2024, Kayla said the exposure of playing adult football has stood to her game. \u201cIt is very helpful when it comes to strengthening up and playing with older and more experienced players\u201d.<\/p>\n

Balancing school along with football commitments both for St Joseph\u2019s, Kilmurry Ibrickane and Clare is not easy, she admitted. \u201cIt is very tough to juggle everything, I was playing camogie for a while with Kilmaley which was tough to juggle everything and I\u2019ve Leaving Cert this year\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kayla Darcy in action for Kilmurry Ibrickane. Photograph: Gerard O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n

Health and fitness management at the University of Limerick is among the courses to catch her eye for next year with Darcy of the mantra that you must \u201cdo what you love\u201d when it comes to work.<\/p>\n

Excitement levels are building ahead of Thursday\u2019s showdown with Our Ladys & St. Patricks Knock from Antrim. \u201cI like the build-up to a match and everyone talking about it, it is good to have your own peace of mind and shut it all out, you don\u2019t want to be too riled up but I\u2019m excited to get the game played\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"*Joint captain of the St Joseph\u2019s Spanish Point ladies football team, Kayla Darcy.\u00a0Photograph: John Sheridan SPURRED on by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[163493,61,60,163494,113414,43,91740,156476],"class_list":["post-361581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-evan-talty","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kayla-darcy","tag-kilmurry-ibrickane","tag-news","tag-spanish-point","tag-st-josephs-spanish-point"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}