Mayo's Ava Lambert on balancing college and Camogie ahead of All-Ireland final
Westport’s finest will be hoping for more success when her side take on Monaghan in Longford.
The Westport virtuoso has what seems like a million spinning plates at once. Whether it be the prospect of defending her club’s football title looming large, her club commitments with the small ball, or her looming thesis deadline as a student at TUD, there is plenty for her to sink her teeth into.
However, come Saturday, all of those roles will take a back seat, as she pulls on the green and red jersey to go into battle in the All-Ireland Junior camogie final.
For most mortals, the thought of balancing even two of those responsibilities would be enough to knock them sideways.
However, in a brief reprieve from her studies to speak to The Mayo News, Lambert seemed to relish the pressure of wearing so many caps at once.
“Thankfully, management with most of my teams are very understanding about the balance, and they just want to see us doing well and enjoying our sport.
“It's definitely difficult to manage during the college year in terms of getting down for training, especially if you're in lectures late. During Summer, it's a bit easier. You can move back home and fully recommit.”
After discussing the balance between codes and life commitments, it was down to business. The disappointment was clear when the side’s year-long absence from the game after not fielding in 2025 was broached.
“It was very difficult to keep going, and the momentum to keep going, just because we only have three clubs.
“This year, we've kept tipping away. We're so lucky to be in an All-Ireland now that hopefully this will give us a bit of a boost going forward.”
For young girls who are thinking about picking up a hurl and sliotar, visibility and having heroes to look up to are imperative, per Lambert, who won a Connacht title last year in the sky blue of Westport.
“You forget sometimes how important the whole ‘if you don't see it, you can't be it’ thing is, especially in Mayo where camogie isn’t the top sport.
“But if people are seeing that there is a team to go into and that you can achieve with them, I think it will only fuel camogie being in the county going forward.
“We've had a lot of success in all of our clubs in the past couple of years, which I'm seeing the effect of that on younger kids when we're just going around with the trophies. If that's brought to a bigger scale of a national trophy, it would be a big deal.”
Before long, the focus inevitably shifted to Monaghan. For the Connacht representatives, looking after their own knitting is the key to repeating the result from the National League final.
“We've beaten them before, but they haven't been easy wins. They're a very strong physical team.
“We obviously are accounting for their strengths, but we're trying to focus on our own performance and what we can do to give us those extra percentages that can get us over the line.”