20 year old Offaly captain revelling in responsibility of lead glory charge

The decision to install Orlagh Phelan as captain of the Offaly camógs for 2025 was an eyebrow-raising call, given that she was 20 years old when she was handed the armband in advance of this year’s campaign.

Her quality as a player has never been in doubt. The Naomh Bríd defender has been a stalwart for the county since making her debut while still in the minor ranks in 2022, and barring injury, the only selection decision to be made by management about her is which of the two central defensive positions should she discharge.

Then you meet her, and it makes perfect sense why she was chosen. Phelan is one of a selection of Offaly players speaking at the All-Ireland preview evening in Glenisk O’Connor Park and even before a microphone is put in front of her, her boundless positive energy is unmistakeable. The interactions with her colleagues make it obvious that she’s both liked and respected, while she walks the line of humility and appreciation of the responsibility on her shoulders perfectly.

If there’s any weight on those shoulders, she doesn’t show it however.

“Sure, how wouldn't you feel fantastic?” she says, beaming.

“Look, there's a great buzz around and it's really exciting, it's brilliant for Offaly camogie.

“The captaincy, I adapted this thing that I'm the same as everyone else. Obviously, with captaincy comes other roles. You have to lead in training, lead in how you approach things and lead on the field. But at the end of the day, I'm the same as everyone else, everyone is here to win, we’re all here to get on the starting 15 and to win games”.

On the hurling field, Offaly have enjoyed a lot of success under ‘no-backwards-step’ defenders, winning four All-Irelands under the captaincy of Hubert Rigney, Pat Fleury, Martin Hanamy and Pádraig Horan, who spent the first nine seasons of his Offaly career hurling in the half-back line.

Phelan’s play involves her drawing on similarly deep pools of stout resolve, though she’s happy to bring in aspects of craft and stickwork that would be more associated with the player who last captained Offaly to this title 15 years ago.

“Michaela Morkan has always been an inspiration of mine” she says, though she accepts that if as is likely she wears the number three jersey on Sunday, then she’ll have to lean more towards a ‘thou shalt not pass’ mindset.

“It's a mentality, it’s how are you going to approach the game? You're the last line of defence, so your aim is to stop the ball and get the ball as far away from the goalie as you can. I don't think you go out to plan to lead, but that’s what creates a leader, you just go out and do your best and make sure that you are putting 100% into it”.

Did she consider that preparing for a possible All-Ireland final speech might be part of her role this year?

“I suppose it's always in the back of your mind. You start the year out with setting goals for yourself and I think the end goal was to win an All-Ireland final. And I think we got that off to a good start with the league win being the foundation for the year.

“The whole year, and I think any Camogie player can reflect on this, it brings ups and downs. Obviously we won the league, we were on such a high and then we played Wexford and we lost that match, we didn’t perform like we’d hoped. Then Antrim beat us in the first round of the championship and I suppose they were the lows then, but I think when we started getting back into championship games. I always knew in the back of my head that yes, we can do this, we're well capable of doing it.

Her memories of Newbridge are simple. Whatever else happens, hold the line, was the motto.

“I just wanted to get the ball and puck it as far away as I could. You’re aware of the time that's ticking, of the scoreboard, that they were coming closer to us, but you have to block that out because that could take over and that could bring nerves.

“In my head it was get the ball and get it out, don't foul, do the basic things. But I watched back the match two nights ago and even knowing the result, watching it was so, so stressful. I just said to Mam and Dad, like it must have been the worst game to watch ever”.

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Worth it for the result though?

“Oh God, I don't know if I can deal with the nerves of a one-point game again. Look, we're going to put the head down. We don't know what Sunday will bring, but we know our own strengths. And I think if we could do it comfortably, that's obviously going to be our goal.

“But Kerry are a good side. We're going to just go out and do our best and I think it's going to come down to the team that wants it more and we just have to make sure we’re that team”.