HER sister Blaithin has made a very successful transition to Aussie Rules and there’s no doubt that Aimee Mackin has the skill set to follow in her footsteps.
It's illustrative of the opportunities there are in women's sport nowadays when you consider that the Armagh star might also have been in Australia this summer playing in the Women’s World Cup if her ambitions weren’t so rooted in her community and county. A scoring-machine during her soccer years, Mackin made her senior debut for Northern Ireland aged 16 before deciding to concentrate on her Gaelic Football skills long before last year’s European Championships came around.
Right now the Shane O’Neill’s clubwoman is counting down the minutes to Armagh’s meeting with Laois in the Division Two final on April 15 and has no regrets that she didn’t pursue a soccer career.
“You don’t know what way things would have turned out if I had went the soccer route,” said the Camlough native at the launch of the Glenveagh Gaelic4Girls programme.
“Soccer is massive and the Northern Ireland team and the Republic of Ireland team are both doing really well and the game has exploded over the last couple of years. When you get more media coverage, more people know about it.
“I don’t regret it (not going pursuing her soccer career) because what I’ve done with Armagh and my club means more to me than anything I could have achieved outside of that. When you’re playing for your club you’re affecting the people around you whereas, if I had went down the other route, maybe it would have just been for myself.
“I like the element of the people that I’ve been able to make happy – my family and people like that – so I don’t regret anything. I still watch soccer – we’re Liverpool supporters in our house and we go over a few times a year – and I’ll be keeping a close eye on the World Cup and hopefully the Republic girls can go well.”
The Armagh girls have certainly been going very well this season. Last weekend’s 3-12 to 0-10 win in Tipperary made it seven out of seven for the Orchard county in Division Two. Mackin made her senior debut in 2015, the last time Armagh won Division Two, and, after last year’s loss to Kerry in the second tier decider, hopes to go one better against the O’Moore county.
Armagh beat Laois 0-10 to 0-5 in round five of the league and a repeat of that win will send them back to the top flight for the first time since the 2016 season.
“At the start of the League we decided to take each game as it comes and we hoped that would leave us in a good position to get to the final and thankfully that’s the way it panned out,” said Mackin whose brother Ciaran was in the Armagh men’s team that was relegated to Division Two last Sunday.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s nice to be in the position – same as Laois - to get up to Division One so we’ll prepare well for the next two weeks and we’ll give it the best shot. We know what Laois are like: they’re a good, strong side with marquee forwards so it’ll be a physical battle.
“Over the last few years it’s been an aim for us to get promoted, same as every other team in Division Two. You want to go to the next one up, especially when we’re playing senior (championship) football. We want to be in Division One and every game in the league this year was so competitive but thankfully we’re there (in the final) and hopefully we can go one better than last year.”
Armagh beat Cavan in their first league game but the Breffni ladies pulled out of their fixture against Tyrone last weekend because of a dispute over expenses with their county board.
“I saw that they didn’t play and obviously I have sympathy for them because I know as players all we want to do is play football,” said Mackin.
