Kim Flood Interview
- Sep 04,2015
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW by WEAREDUBLIN WITH DUBLIN LADIES FOOTBALL'S MULTI-TALENTED STAR KIM FLOOD
Kim is a very accomplished Rugby player and soccer player as well as a star player for the Dubs. We asked Kim about the difficulty of playing multiple sports at the top level,Saturday's Semi-Final and the people that have had a big influence on her sporting career and much much more.
INTERVIEW:
WAD: So Kim How Are Enjoying Being Back In The Senior Set-Up With Dublin?
KF: Yeah, really enjoying it now, I think it’s the fittest I have ever been, I just feel different playing this year, I really do, compared to other years that I have played football for Dublin.
I am that bit older and a bit more wiser! I have had experience of playing with Dublin when I was a little bit younger and didn’t get as much chances as I would have liked but now I am really really enjoying it.
WAD: You are also a very accomplished Rugby & Soccer player, how difficult is it to play multiple sports at the same time at the elite level?
KF: I am playing soccer since I was really young and I gave it up then because I got into the Gaelic through primary school and I was doing really well getting on development teams with Dublin so I kinda just knocked soccer to the side , I played with boys! And you kinda have to stop playing with boys when you reach a certain age for obvious reasons.
I didn’t really get back into soccer too much, I was there or there about's playing with my sisters team but I was always playing the Gaelic and getting in with the Dublin minors so I was taking that more seriously.
I suppose when I went to college in Sligo I got back into soccer, I was playing it and Gaelic for the college, I wanted to get a scholarship in which ever I could so I ended up getting the Gaelic scholarship.
But I played both, most people did as it’s a small college, it wouldn’t be like UCD or DCU where it would take up all your time and you could only play one sport.
I really enjoyed that and because I was in Silgo I played with Castlebar Celtic in the women’s national league for a season or two and we did really well.
We had a successful season the year I played and we got to play in the Aviva Stadium which was amazing, it was the first year ever and it was live on RTE but unfortunately we lost because of me, but you know, what can we do, people score own goals.
But how many people can say that they scored in the Aviva! Wrong goal tho… so I would have been playing against a lot of my friends that played with Raheny and I was the only Dub on the country team for Castlebar so they probably all just thought I did it on purpose – it was kinda awkward but we got over it.
But since then I haven’t really gone back to the soccer, I have been focusing a lot more on the rugby and the Gaelic this year, more so Gaelic although I did get to play a few Rugby games and unfortunately I am missing out on the Leinster interprovincial season which is running at the moment but I can’t complain.
I am in an All-Ireland Semi Final on Saturday and my main focus is Gaelic this year and I want to get to the All-Ireland final and play in Croke Park again so Rugby is taking a back seat at the moment and we will come to that when it happens so.
WAD; What impresses you most about the set up under Greg?
KF: I wasn’t involved last year I was in America playing Gaelic out there.I took a year out after my final year in college so I came into the set up this year, and it’s really professional.
I feel that we have a really good relationship with the management, we are all working towards the same thing Its really clear what we are trying to do, the team is prepared really well for Saturday and throughout the whole season, it’s been very professional.
I have been in Rugby in the Ireland set up and Rugby is a very professional sport and the way its ran, the way you play, it’s so technical and you can’t even speak to the referee you know, that kinda thing, so the Dublin set up this year is absolutely brilliant, it’s really professional and we are going really well with our preparations now and throughout the whole season.
WAD: Kim it's Armagh Up Next in the Semi-Final on Saturday, How Do You See The Game Going?
KF: I thinks it’s gonna be a really close game, I think it will be a really good game for people to watch and we are hoping that it obviously swings our way, we don’t know what’s gonna happen on the day, the two teams are gonna give it absolutely everything, we are 60 minutes from Croke Park and we all want to play there against Cork.
When you play against Cork you are playing at the top level, playing the best team in the country for the last ten years so we want another crack at them, we can’t look past Armagh though, they didn’t have a great run in Ulster but you can’t take that from them Ulster is one of the most competitive provinces in the country and with the likes of Monaghan & Donegal, so you can’t look too much into that I suppose.
They won their league this year, division 2 and teams are chopping and changing leagues fairly easily so you can’t really take too much from the league either, they beat Donegal in the league fairly well,
I know it was tight on the last day but it just shows what preparations you can give for the championships and what teams can do, regardless of how they perform in leagues in the Ulster or Provincial Championships.
So I’d expect a really good challenging game, I think it could go either way but we are going to give it absolutely everything and I am sure that Armagh will, because we are both just 60 minutes from Croke Park and that’s exactly what we want to achieve this year.
But we are taking one game at a time, you know we beat Monaghan and it was a close game , delighted to come through it, I felt like we were in control but it was brilliant for spectators to watch, it was so close.
Monaghan are a brilliant team, they have loads of experience. Armagh as well, the key players for them, if they perform, that will put us under pressure, we would be hoping we could counteract that and have a huge performance, that’s what we are hoping to get.
WAD: What would it mean to you to get to the All-Ireland Final?
KF: I just think that this year as I am a little bit older that I would appreciate it a bit more, I feel like because I have gotten a taste of other sports and I am not yet playing at those levels yet.
I want to get to Croke Park and play at the highest level, it would be brilliant to play in front of that crowd, on the biggest day for ladies football all year, it would mean everything.
You just never know what’s around the corner for you, so sometimes these chances don’t come around to often so this Saturday, well I am not looking beyond it, I am gonna give it absolutely everything and I am sure the whole team will as well. To make sure we are back in that final playing against Cork.
WAD: You have played a lot of sports, who has been your biggest influence on your sporting career and what is the best advice you have ever been given?
KF: I suppose at a young age the teachers in Primary School, there was two male teachers from Tipperary and they got me into Gaelic Football and I got really successful with Gaelic for a long time, coming right up through the ranks at under age Dublin.
It was only recently I went into Rugby by chance, my team in Sandymount, Railway Union, they were setting up a new team and women’s Rugby was only taking off in the country and had been given a boost with the women winning the 6 Nations and doing really well and it was the professional set up and that enticed me to go there for a bit of fitness.
With the team only starting up I wanted to see what it was about before I went back to college in Sligo, Gaelic was over at the time so I said I would try it out so I went down and I didn’t think anything of it, but I ended up loving it, I loved the physicality of it, the kicking game that you can have, the kicking off of a tee, the pressure of it.
I suppose yeah I got really into it and the club developed, I think we have won something every year with the club, we are in the top division now, we are in AIL 1 and we won the All-Ireland last year and the championship but we would be looking to win the league this year, playing against the top teams like Old Belvedere and UL Bohs and stuff like that, teams that would have been around a long time.
We are very new and we have a lot of cross over people that have joined Rugby from Gaelic so that’s a massive thing, we are going really well. I got to play with Fiona Coughlan at Leinster in my first year, and I barely even knew the rules but she took me under her wing and she really helped me, but I would say it was the teachers (for Gaelic) in primary that really pushed me.
And of course my family,my mam and dad. Dads huge into sport and my brothers and sisters play sport, my younger sister plays with the Irish 7s National team, she’s contracted to them.
Fiona Coughlan and players like her who have been playing for years but only started to get success recently, they have really helped me come along in Rugby and gave me loads of advice and tips in understanding the game, the likes of Nora Stapleton as well and people at my club.
There is a New Zealand coach at my club that played with the New Zealand’s National 7’s team so she has literally fast tracked me to the rules of the game and all the different techniques of the game and understanding it and really helped coached me through that and my younger sister too.
She is in the 7’s set up now and is getting paid to do it and she is loving it. People that have been in and around any of the sports I have played have influenced me and helped me progress in it.
WAD : Do you think there could be a bit more physicality allowed in the Gaelic game?
KF; Yeah I think it depends on the referee, I feel that the Northern teams (no disrespect) are very physical and the likes of Mayo & Galway, I have played with some of those girls in college football, I went obviously to a Sligo College and they are rough, not soft!
They give everything to get that ball, but it depends on the ref and what they allow. Some players are smaller, nippier, their strengths are pace, others have strength and they can get up and win a ball, shrug of players so I suppose you do need both traits, you need that mixture around the pitch in terms of physicality in the game it really does depend on what the referee lets go.
I know playing against Donegal even in challenge games I felt they were very physical and Galway and that's obviously how they train and play. It comes down to interpretation of rules, if the ref is gonna blow for everything, it takes away from it, but some ref’s let things go and see how the ball fairs out, you have to adapt as the game goes on and see where you stand.
Dublin play Armagh in the TG4 All Ireland Semi Final this Saturday Sept 5th at 2 pm in Parnell Park ‪#‎COYGIB‬