When the De La Salle camogie management team arrived at the Gracedieu grounds on the outskirts of Waterford city last Sunday morning, the first person there was Beth Carton. It was simultaneously a surprise and not so.
The previous night, Carton had been named PwC Camogie Player of the Year at a ceremony in Croke Park. If she had taken a beat to enjoy the achievement, no one would have sounded an alarm bell, but then De La Salle have a Munster semi-final to play on November 19th.
"We actually told her not to travel, to stay up there and enjoy the night," De La Salle's Derek Healy tells Balls, "but she's just that sort of person."
4/11/2023; 2023 PwC Camogie All-Star Awards, Croke Park, Dublin. PwC GPA Camogie Premier Junior Player of the Year Ellen Casey of Clare, 2023 PwC GPA Camogie Player of the Year Beth Carton of Waterford and 2023 PwC GPA Intermediate Camogie Player of the Year Aine McAllister of Derry. Photo Credit ©INPHO/Tom Maher
It sounds like the type of cliched story you hear about all great players but it meshes with the experience of others.
For Adrian O'Sullivan, who managed the University of Limerick camogie team for two of Carton's four Ashbourne Cup title wins, the 25-year-old is the confluence of talent and work ethic. During his time managing her, it wasn't that Beth Carton worked harder than other players but more that no one outworked Beth Carton.
'She just didn't want to let her Waterford teammates down'
"She used to be so mad for playing hurling that she'd be trying to play us off against each other," O'Sullivan, UL manager in 2019 and 2020, says about his dealings with then Waterford camogie manager Donal O'Rourke.
"She'd be telling me, 'Listen, I'm not going to play with Waterford on Sunday because we have a game on Tuesday'. Sure, she'd be telling Donal, 'Listen, I won't play with UL on Tuesday because of the Waterford game on Sunday'.
READ MORE: 'Pride' For Ex-Cork Camogie Boss As Family Business Continues To Grow
READ MORE: Clare's Ryan Brothers Get The Days They Thought Were Lost Forever
"The naivety of youth, she didn't know that we were laughing away with her in the background going, 'Right, she'll play half an hour for ye on Sunday and half an hour for us on Tuesday'. It was a lovely thing.
"I became good friends with Donal on the back of it because we used to be talking about her so much. That just shows the type of person she is.
"She just didn't want to let her Waterford teammates down, she didn't want to let her UL teammates down. It had to be managed carefully in the background. She might be reading this, not knowing it was going on. The secret is out now!"
13 September 2015; Waterford players from left, Deirdre Brennan, Beth Carton and Niamh Rockett celebrate at the end of the game. All Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final, Kildare v Waterford. Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE
O'Sullivan first saw Carton's talent years earlier while he was part of the Limerick minor camogie management team. They'd won the All-Ireland in 2014 and the defending champions headed to Waterford the following year "a bit cocky".
'We definitely used her like a Fiat instead of a Ferrari'
"They absolutely tore us a new one in the first half, this one with a red helmet running around up front," says O'Sullivan.
It was a bit like (David) Clifford, Joe Canning, the rumours about this player down in Waterford were going around for a long time.
I was managing Mary I a couple of years later, across town from UL, and we tried to recruit her in first year but she went to UL. We had a very strong Ashbourne team and we got to a semi-final. They played us in the championship and they destroyed us. She was leading the line up front as a first year.
When I got the UL job, it wasn't a surprise to me that she was going to be one of the main players. She was always going to be something special.
A Zlatan Ibrahimovic line about Pep Guardiola driving him like a Fiat when Barcelona had bought a Ferrari comes to mind when O'Sullivan considers how UL used Carton. She didn't have the Swede's arrogance.
"You could play her in full-forward and she'd cut loose but if you were struggling to get a foothold in a game, you could put her out around midfield, the role Waterford had with her this year, and she'd do all the hard work and win the dirty ball," says O'Sullivan.
"She had no airs and graces about her whatsoever. Sometimes, we definitely used her like a Fiat instead of a Ferrari. When that talent and work rate meet, it's a special thing.
16 July 2022; Beth Carton of Waterford in action against Marian Quaid of Limerick during the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Quarter Final match between Waterford and Limerick at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by George Tewkesbury/Sportsfile
"She dug me out of a few holes. The one that sticks out most... We had a huge rivalry with WIT all through the years. They had done the five-in-a-row on the UL campus [in 2013], beating UL in a final.
"We were going for the five-in-a-row down in Waterford on their campus and played them in a semi-final. There was an orange weather warning and the only two games that went ahead in the whole country were the Ashbourne semi-finals.
"We didn't score in the first half. I don't think we even had a shot in the first half, couldn't get out of our half. It was like 1-7 to no score at half-time.
"Beth just gave a performance in the second half, herself and Siobhan McGrath absolutely put us up on their backs. We were two points down six or seven minutes into injury time.
"We got a 45 and there was just something in me that said I'll regret this if Beth Carton doesn't hit it. We sent her out to hit it and she just floated one into the top corner, a bit like Paul Flynn in the Munster final against Cork [in 2004]. We won by a point.
"She went out the following day and hit 1-6 in the Ashbourne final and we destroyed UCC. That whole weekend of her returning to Waterford where she was the hero but playing for a Limerick team and doing the five-in-a-row, Player of the Tournament, those performances, that weekend stands out as something very special."
'Everybody in the ground clapped'
Carton's talent was nurtured by a club which didn't even exist until 2009. Her father Joey, a games manager with Munster GAA, laid the De La Salle camogie club foundations with just two teams. 14 years on, they have 15 teams and 180 registered players.
Last year, the club won its first Waterford senior title and this year defended its crown. A handful of players who started at U12, including Carton, won at every grade. The club now has five players on the Waterford senior panel.
15 August 2010; Beth Carton, third from the right on the back row. GAA INTO Mini-Sevens during half time of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final, Waterford v Tipperary, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE
"She plays ladies football with Erin's Own, gives her all there, never quibbles," says Healy.
"Camogie is her number one, and everybody understands that. She's so committed to everything she does. Off the field, she's the same. Helping out, signing autographs, giving a dig out to another club if they ask her to come along.
"In 2018, 10 of those girls played a Waterford Senior Camogie Championship semi-final at 4pm and at 7:30pm they had to drive to New Inn on the far side of Clonmel to play a Munster Junior Club Championship quarter-final for Erins Own. The football match went to extra-time and they won. They didn't once moan or groan."
Before he took over as Waterford manager for the 2023 season, Sean Power only knew Carton - a teacher at Presentation Secondary School in Waterford - to say hello.
"We all would have known and admired Beth in Waterford," says Power.
"I have a nine-year-old who plays camogie with Mount Sion. Any of the under-6 and under-8 blitzes we were at with Holly, there was Beth with De La Salle.
"When we were up in De La Salle, [playing against] one of the teams she wasn't coaching, she was helping with the referees. She loves the sport."
Others informed Power about Carton's application on the training pitch.
22/7/2023; Waterford's Beth Carton comes up against Mairead Eviston and Karin Blair of Tipperary during teh Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship semi-final, UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady
"Some [Mount Sion] clubmates were involved with previous iterations of the Waterford management setup," he says, "and they said she'd give you everything, 'She'll train like it's the last two minutes of an All-Ireland final, even if it's November’. What I found with her, it's how receptive her teammates are to how she approaches the game.
"When you have a player of that calibre who doesn't take it for granted and pushes herself as far as she can push herself in a training capacity, you find that everyone in the room just goes up.
"That's the way counties get better, by one particular person pushing the standards, pushing the boundaries. If you can't live up to those standards that are set by key individuals in the dressing room, maybe you shouldn't be there. She's one of those who sets the standards."
'Paul Flynn and herself did a lot of work on frees'
This season, Carton scored a remarkable six goals and 121 points in 13 games across league and championship as Waterford reached their first All-Ireland final since 1945.
Performances against Cork in the Munster championship and Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final standout for Power along with one score which epitomises the player.
"She pulled off a piece of skill against Offaly in one of the round robin games of the Al-Ireland series," says Power.
"One of the Offaly half-backs was coming out with the ball. We were in comfortable control of the game. Beth sprints 25 yards to get a hook in, as the ball hops off the ground, she catches its swivels on her left and puts it over the bar from 45m at an angle. Offaly supporters, Waterford supporters, neutrals, everybody in the ground clapped.
"She's an excellent striker of the ball, more due to technique than body strength because she's quite a slight girl. She's not bursting with muscles but she's quite strong. It's all motion when she's on the ball and it's very difficult to defend.
"The best thing about her is her support runs and support lines and bringing players into the game. Another thing about her, and this probably isn't publicised enough, is that when she's not in possession of that ball, she is working savagely hard to get it back. That's what players in dressing rooms really react to.
"Even in a disappointing All-Ireland final display by Waterford, Beth didn't have a bad game. Missing a penalty, it could happen to anybody. You take your hat off to somebody when you don't have a hope of winning a match and you still try to do the right thing, that's a sign of somebody really, really special."
6/8/2023; Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final. Waterford's Beth Carton and Laoise Forrest dejected after defeat to Cork. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
An unusual aspect of Carton's game is that she takes long-range frees off her left and close-range ones off her right. "My preferred side would be my left growing up so I’d have a longer strike on that side," Carton told the Sunday Independent.
"But I probably have a better style off the right because it’s more natural, it’s not coming across the body."
With a smile, Power says the quirk of Carton's game is something they "discussed a little bit this year".
"One of my management team for 2023 was Paul Flynn," says Power.
"He could hit a free. Paul and herself did a lot of work on frees. Someone who is a capable free-taker just needs a tweak, a little 'why don't we try this'.
"We'd been saying to her a little bit, 'Beth, hit your frees on your right. That's where you're more accurate'. Maybe just to cheese me off now and again, she drove one on her left. When you have a skillset like hers, maybe when the ball is on the left, hit it on the left."
23 July 2022; Beth Carton of Waterford in action against Saoirse McCarthy of Cork during the Glen Dimplex Senior Camogie All-Ireland Championship Semi-Final match between Cork and Waterford at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
After Waterford's heavy defeat in this year's All-Ireland, Cork players told Power they thought Carton deserved to be named Player of the Year. Even though two of their teammates - Amy O'Connor and Saoirse McCarthy - were also nominated for the award, they told him the same at last weekend's PwC Camogie All-Stars ceremony.
"Beth could have won Player of the Year in any of the last five years," says O'Sullivan.
"The way these awards go, you have to get to a final to be in the mix. She thoroughly deserves it. I just think she's been in that elite level of player for the last number of years.
"She went into UL and they won five-in-a-row Ashbournes and they haven't won one since. De La Salle hadn't won a county until she came along and they won two. Waterford hadn't been in an All-Ireland camogie final in [78 years] and she got them there.
"Joe Canning came in ready to go. David Clifford came in ready to go. Beth, for me, is in the same echelon as those guys. Look at the impact she's made on all the teams she's been involved in and that tells you everything you need to know about Beth Carton."
See Also: The Making Of Cork Camogie's 'Versatile' Superstar
