DUBLIN star Kate Sullivan has given their new management team the seal of approval.
The forward, 25, has featured in four of the five games the Sky Blues have played in this year’s Lidl NFL Division 1 under joint-bosses Paul Casey and Derek Murray.
The Jackies are fifth in the table as they head into their sixth outing today against Tyrone in Dungannon.
Ex-boss Mick Bohan brought the curtain down on a wildly successful stint as supremo following Dublin’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway last year — a game Sullivan missed with a hamstring injury.
Bohan led the Dubs to Brendan Martin Cup triumphs in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023 — and Division 1 league crowns in 2018 and 2021.
Both Casey and Murray had already been part of the set-up before as selectors.
And Sullivan reckons that made it an easier transition.
The St Sylvester’s star said: “It was that little bit smoother that the guys and the rest of the management team were already kind of there with a few new faces in.
“In terms of them being there and working on things that players were familiar with, it wasn’t as big of a change.
“We were still able to build on things that we previously had been working on while also adding in a few new things as well.
“It probably wasn’t too new in terms of starting from scratch.
“Especially with some new, younger players coming in, the older girls were a bit more familiar with a few things that we were going to be working on during the league.
“Everything is going great with the two lads. Delighted with them.”
Even when she is not lining out for club or county, Sullivan is engrossed in sport through her day job as a head coach for Kick Start Movements.
Co-founded by former Dublin players William Lowry and Micheál McCarthy, KSM is a physical and nutritional programme for children aged between two and seven.
Delivered through schools and creches in Ireland, each 35-minute class uses KSM’s three-step model — covering movement, socialisation and nutrition — to help kids boost their confidence.
Sullivan added: “I’m enjoying working with them and the sport side of it. Getting to go in and teach younger kids that movement side.
“No matter whether they want to go into Gaelic or hurling or camogie or basketball, or anything like that.
“Just teaching those fundamentals, so that they have that confidence.
“Especially girls, who seem to drop off around 12, 13, 14 years of age.
“I’m a big believer of, if you kind of get them between three and seven years of age and you get their core fundamentals up, that they’ll have the confidence as they do get older in those teenage years.”
DREAM DEBUT SETTING
Now in her seventh season as a senior panellist, Sullivan has been living the dream from the beginning.
There are not many ladies footballers who get to make their competitive senior inter-county debuts in Croke Park — but that was her lot in 2019.
Bohan drafted her in for the NFL campaign and even though she was listed as a sub for their opener with Donegal, she found herself starting.
Even though the game ended in a 1-11 to 1-7 defeat, it was to prove unforgettable.
Sullivan added: “It was a great one to get my debut in — going into a stadium like that was brilliant.
“That was a day I’ll probably always remember starting off my Dublin career.
“I found out earlier that week that I was going to start. Obviously the team came out and I don’t think I was named on it but it was keeping that quiet and just telling family.
“It probably helped a little bit as well that there was no noise outside or any expectations on it.”
That side was backboned by club-mates Sinéad Aherne, Nicole Owens and Niamh McEvoy — and now Sullivan is a leader in her own right.
She added: “My age group or group of friends has become a more experienced group in the team.”
