Ciara Grant might have switched codes of late, but the Letterkenny woman is fast looking like becoming quite the capture by the Donegal senior ladies.
Hitting the headlines for her goalscoring exploits is nothing new.
A soccer player of some renown, Grant has been capped 15 times for the Republic of Ireland senior side. In 2013, Grant scored a memorable goal for Raheny in the WFAI Cup final – a stunning effort from distance against Castlebar Celtic.
After some time out of the game as she concentrated on her intensive medical studies at UCD, Grant is back again – and aiming to fire the Donegal ladies to success in 2018.
“I really am enjoying it,” she said.
“It’s a different game to what I was used to a few years ago. I’ve eased myself back and I’m learning lots in each game and each training session.
“I need to keep pushing forward. The squad is serious here; there’s such depth to it. Everyone is fighting for a place.
“I was delighted to get onto the starting team there. No better day for it with the sun shining and the rain holding off for it.
“I did play for years and years so I had that standing to me. It’s going okay for me so far.”
Donegal had a 15-point lead half-time, with Grant netting after showing all of her predatory instincts. Her second saw her polish off an excellent team move and Grant is certainly playing with a smile again.
She said: “In ladies football, goals are a big difference. Some girls here love to get goals. They gave us the confidence to push on and our fitness showed.
“From start to finish, the team was very good. It took a little while for us to warm up, but once we got the rhythm going things started clicking for us. We got great scores from all over the place.”
Donegal will be aiming to retain their Ulster SFC crown in the summer and there are even dreams of bigger outings to come. For now, though, an assault on a League title – which they just missed out on a year ago – is the immediate goal.
Grant said: “When you’re trying to get better and better with the Championship always in the back of your mind, everyone is going out with the same attitude.
“We don’t have too many games before Championship and we want to get better. We tried to take the same attitude into the second half and Yvonne got a great goal at the start.”
