Wearing her distinctive green hair bobble makes Kerry\u2019s Aoife Dillane stand out on the football field. However, for the flying wing-back, this certainly isn\u2019t a fashion statement, or anything of the sort. It has a much deeper meaning to the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n
There is a tattoo on the Austin Stacks player\u2019s upper arm. This isn\u2019t for decorative purposes either. It simply reads \u2018Love Lolie.\u2019 Lolie is Dolores Curtin, Aoife\u2019s grandmother. Her biggest supporter. The woman who inspired the hair bobble, and the ink on the skin.<\/p>\n
Just over two months after Dillane lit up Croke Park with a stunning chipped goal in Kerry\u2019s All-Ireland final victory over Galway in 2024, her beloved grandmother went to her eternal reward on October 12 of that year. Her memory lives on in the everyday action of the Kingdom number seven.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (the tattoo) has a massive personal message. It is my nan\u2019s handwriting, so it says Love Lolie, and I took it off a 21st birthday card that she wrote for me. She would have been one of my biggest supporters. She\u2019s actually the reason that I wear the green hair bobble in my hair,\u201d said Dillane.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe used to give out that she couldn\u2019t tell which one I was on the field, so I found this at home one day and said that I\u2019m putting that in my hair now to keep her quiet. She loved it, and so I just continued to wear it.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately she passed away a few weeks after we won the All-Ireland in 2024, but I still wear it, just as a memento to her. She was definitely my biggest cheerleader. She was unbelievable, and she was the proudest woman above in the Hogan Stand in 2024. Hopefully we can do her proud again this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the field in 2026, Dillane and the rest of her defensive colleagues are enjoying a fantastic championship in the green and gold. Since they lost to Waterford in the opening round of the provincial competition, Kerry are on a seven-game winning streak, keeping six clean sheets in eight matches.<\/p>\n
Even though they lost defenders C\u00e1it Lynch and Ava Doherty to long-term injuries in the league, the return of the vastly experienced Emma Costello to centre-back has solidified the entire rearguard. Dillane has learnt so much from those around her.<\/p>\n
\u201cC\u00e1it is still a massive part of our panel. She got that injury very early this season, and we all supported C\u00e1it through her surgery, and her rehabilitation and everything. In a team sport like that, we all know that\u2019s why we carry a panel,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a panel of 36 girls there, and I think Rois\u00edn Rahilly got the nod then after that. Rois\u00edn has done absolutely fantastically, and I\u2019m sure C\u00e1it is very happy with the way Rois\u00edn has played. Obviously we miss her leadership and her experience. You can\u2019t replace that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo still have her in and around the dressing room with her nuggets of wisdom, and especially from a back\u2019s point of view, is great. If there\u2019s ever anything I have to question, you can go to girls like that all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo then gain the experience of Emma Costello was just invaluable to us. We were just delighted that she came back in, and I think she\u2019s having the season of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s just a solid person to have there. I love having her beside me, and she\u2019d be talking away to you out on the field. I never really feel confused or lost, because I know she\u2019ll put me straight out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The primary school teacher doesn\u2019t remember too much about the All-Ireland decider of two years ago, even her goal that made people sit up and notice. Laughing that she hasn\u2019t raised a green flag since, she is fully aware that Sunday will see a different Galway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly I remember very little, it\u2019s just a blur. That was such a fantastic day, and it was great to chip in on the scoreboard. I have scored a few points here and there since, but no goals since that one. That was a great day, but the foundation of that day was these two weeks two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cGalway are an exceptional team. They\u2019re very fast I find from playing against them and watching them. They\u2019re so tight-knit. They\u2019ve five club All-Ireland medals won with the majority of them together. A lot of their team is made up from that Kilkerrin-Clonberne club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to be a massive challenge on Sunday. They\u2019re going to run at us. They\u2019re going to really fancy their pace against us, so we\u2019re just going to have to come prepared, and just be ready to have them running at us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dillane and Kerry were ready for what Meath and Dublin (the 2025 All-Ireland finalists) were going to throw at them in the quarter-final and semi-final. Mark Bourke\u2019s side have an ingrained belief in their own collective ability, which could prove to be crucial this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very much aware that we are very lucky to be in the position that we were in. The position we\u2019re in is that we have another football match this season, and the rest of the counties don\u2019t have another football match this season,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have a lot of experience on this team that were there in 2024, and we\u2019ll be feeding that into the rest of our panel this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Meath and Dublin were last year\u2019s finalists, but that wasn\u2019t really what I was thinking about. Personally, I was thinking that Meath beat us in an All-Ireland final in 2022, Meath knocked us out of the championship last year, and Dublin beat us in an All-Ireland final in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know some players will say that they ignore that, but I just use it to my advantage. I wasn\u2019t going to let any Meath or Dublin girl get the better of me over the last two games. I used that as a kind of fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re both phenomenal teams. People are talking about the scorelines but, once we\u2019re hitting our targets internally in our camp, I think we\u2019ll be happy with our performance, regardless of the score. We need to hit our targets again on Sunday, and hopefully the scoreline will take care of itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here now. Winning All-Ireland finals is the dream. We\u2019re very much aware that we need to go out and play another game. It\u2019s just another football match. As I said, we\u2019ve put ourselves in this position, and we need to take advantage of that now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the Rock Street wing-back bobs and weaves her way up and down the flank in Croke Park on Sunday, with the green hair bobble blowing in the breeze, Aoife Dillane will have Dolores Curtin firmly in her corner. Looking down from above, her departed grandmother remains her rock to lean on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wearing her distinctive green hair bobble makes Kerry\u2019s Aoife Dillane stand out on the football field. However, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4365,6937,43268,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-578150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-gaelic-football","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-ladies-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578150","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=578150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}