Super Rena - Cork Hero

18th May 2015

There’s something extraordinarily comforting for us fans watching Rena Buckley, Cork ladies footballer, in full flight. While plenty other Corkonians excelled on Saturday night in Portlaoise as Cork defeated Galway to win a ninth league title for the Rebelettes, Buckley perfectly encapsulated the relentless, fearless and unwavering Rebel spirit that has made this team arguably the best GAA team that has ever kicked or pucked a ball.

In the men’s game these days we often see big muscular, powerful and gutsy players making Buckley-esque runs into the heart of the opposition defence that makes spectators stand up and howl their encouragement.
 

Miost likely about to do something briliant.

However, you can never feel entirely confident of the player’s threat to the defence if they have a dodgy solo – the players who look like they might lose the ball each time they let it fall to their kicking foot - when it pings back at them it always seems to be to a different height each time.

Players like that are similar to powerful two litre cars but with a bit of rain water in the engine – you just can’t trust them on big hills or when overtaking a Dutch camper van on the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ despite the size of the engine.  

Whether we are conscious of it or not we all judge footballers by the accuracy of their solo - it is the yard stick of a quality footballer and we all feel slightly uneasy when a big ball exponent with a dodgy one receives a pass. As a fan when they get the ball you’re thinking ‘oh right, it’s yourself…ok, just go for the simple hand-pass option now boy and do it quickly before you malfunction’.   

The ball back bounces off their boot too fast, too high or it shoots off to one side. Compensating for one inaccurate solo causes them to alter what their footballing instinct told them was the right quick pass or run to make next. The gap he was about to back himself to squeeze through with half a second to spare now looks unfeasible because that time was spent adjusting himself for a wayward solo instead.

It slows down the team’s attack and gives markers an extra second to get to grips with an attacker. And us fans always despair a little – FAST BALL BOY! FAST BAUUWWWWLLLL!  

Then there are the footballers who are a joy to watch regardless of what the scoreboard says.  They let the ball drop to their boot with laser guided precision and with perfect timing and an exquisite flick of the foot it lands back into their hands along the exact same midline trajectory. Every. Single. Time.

They can twist, turn, shimmy and spin yet when they emerge from a challenge with the ball their soloing metronome is still pulsing perfectly to the same beat as they quickly calculate their next move. The team press forward and the likelihood of a score increases.

That’s pure Rena Buckley.  
 

Does she have space in her gaf for all the silverware?

On Saturday night she may have only been third on the top scorers list (the amazing Valerie Mulcahy struck seven and Aisling Hutchings got three) but she was everywhere, pressing forward with that relentless reliability that when us fans see her receive a pass you know it’s going to result in a good thing.

She began winning All-Ireland inter-county football medals in 2005 and ten years later she is still kicking crucial last minute points – winning the game for Cork on Saturday night with a late score. A textbook Roy of the Rovers hero.

Buckley has such a huge haul of All-Ireland medals and All Star awards from camogie and football that we are now edging closer and closer to statue territory - watch out Father Mathew and Rory Gallagher!

As a message to young Corkonians wishing to follow in her footsteps, literally, it would apt if the statue depicted that reliable metronomic solo that puts us fans at ease every time she’s on the ball: at full tilt, shoulders down, head up, eyes roving for an opportunity to pass or score while the ball ticks away on her right foot – always driving Cork on to a new level of glory. It sends a tingle up our Cork spines.  

To love Cork is to love Rena.