It Comes From A Place Of Love And That’s Why We Play The Game – Laois Captain Aimee Collier

Laois are aiming to win the All-Ireland Intermediate title this weekend.

A men’s Gaelic football match between a Connacht county and a Munster county should have no bearing on a camogie match between a Leinster county and an Ulster county, and yet when Mayo pulled off their incredible win over Kerry last Sunday week, it resonated deeply with Laois captain Aimee Collier, in advance of the O’Moore County’s bid to upset the odds against Antrim in Croke Park this Sunday.

On paper, the midlanders have it all to do in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland intermediate decider. They operated two divisions below Antrim in the Centra League and are in their first year operating at this grade, having beaten Armagh to win the Premier Junior title 12 months ago.

Antrim started the year with an historic win over Cork, who will contest the senior final on Sunday, and in this year’s intermediate championship they’ve a perfect record of four wins from four games, with an average winning margin of more than 10 points per game.

Mayo also had it all to do against Kerry, but they harnessed the power of raw emotion to see their way over the finish line. Collier, watching the game in Camross, 140 kilometres from the Mayo border, was as captivated as anyone from Claremorris or Crossmolina.

“I don’t think there was a dry eye in the country, and that’s why we do it,” she says, her voice crackling. “The inner aggression in your game that you have to bring out in tackles and the intensity, the training you do all year to make sure you’re able to be the fittest and strongest you can be, that’s where that comes from. It comes from a place of love and this is why we play the game, rather than anything else.

“In Camross, when you’re growing up, we all either play camogie or play hurling or we have a lot of involvement in music and dancing, and mostly both. I’m just sitting here in my sitting room and I’m looking out, the hurling pitch is literally 200 metres away from me. You grow up in it.”

It was never going to be any other way in the Collier household. Her dad, Pat is on the management team and was a stalwart in the black and amber colours of the club for decades. Her mam, Sinéad was a county footballer and camog with Laois, as well as racking up the medals for Camross.

“It’s camogie when you wake up in the morning, that’s what the talk is, and camogie when you’re going to bed. These next few weeks are 100% camogie, camogie, camogie!”

As the conversation unfolds, it’s clear that while her environment might have influenced Collier’s chosen sport, her personality is what drove her to see it as a lot more than just pucking a ball about for fun. There are no coastlines around Laois, but even if there were, she’s not someone who could be carried away by the tide – there’s a consciousness to all of her decisions, not least her career choice, which was heavily influenced by her 12-year-old brother, Aaron, with whom she shared last year’s All-Ireland final glory on the Croke Park pitch last year (see photo).

“Aaron being diagnosed with Down Syndrome did push me a little bit,” is how she explains her decision to work in social care. She’s currently with the Muiríosa Foundation in Tullamore, applying herself with exactly the same mindset as she takes to the field with Camross and Laois.

“The job gave me a bit of insight to how we could help him with whatever it may be, any struggles that he may come to in his life. I always did love helping people and caring for people anyway, and then you’re working as a team as well.

“It’s no different to camogie, when you get that reward of someone achieving something, it’s all of us, we’ve all done that together. And there are bad days, but they’re not bad days for me, it’s who we care for. You just try to do as much as possible to make them feel as comfortable as you can when they are going through those bad days.”

Naturally there were bad days on the camogie field too, in particular in 2024, when Laois managed to lose a league final, a Leinster final and an All-Ireland Premier Junior final, all by a point.

While most would be tempted to curse their luck and attempt a scattergun approach in praying to a variety of different deities, Collier took a different, more philosophical view.

“Getting to those positions, it was a new experience for us. I hadn’t played in a final at adult level with Laois before that, even though we were very successful when we were younger. It was something we had to witness first, before you go on to win. That’s what drove us last year, and this year it’s a whole new level.

“I had the belief in us that we could step up to this level, I always thought we were an intermediate team, but you still have your doubts because you’re playing at a lower level.”

Knockout wins over Down and Kerry were seen as upsets, but Collier cites their comprehensive nine-point victory over Westmeath in June as the high point of their season, because of the pressure that was on them going into that game. 

“The aim (for 2026) was to win the Leinster final and stay safe (at intermediate). When we beat Westmeath in Kinnegad in the last round game I think there was just a sense of relief because we were after achieving what we set out to start the year, but we still had more to look forward to.

“From there, we just went out to enjoy our camogie and what happens, happens. Down are not long out of senior, Kerry are backboned by that incredible Clanmaurice team, but we’ve found incredible resilience in the group. Even after (Kerry) went up 1-3 to no score in the first 10 minutes. We kept ticking over, popping over the points and then you get into the last few minutes and you realise that you can win, and that we can get back to Croke Park.”

Collier was part of a Laois side that edged out Antrim in an All-Ireland U16B final replay in Inniskeen back in 2017 and many players from both sides will feature on Sunday, but she freely admits that Antrim really pushed on to a different level since then. 

“They progressed so well, they went up into senior, they beat Cork in the league this year. They’re an unbelievable outfit, we need to go in with relaxed heads and just throw everything we have at them. At the end of the day, if that’s not good enough, so be it, but just throw the kitchen sink and see what happens.”

And if it all boils down to one late chance for their captain and freetaker?

“As Kobe MacDonald said, it’s just two goals either end of pitch at the end of the day and, you know, you’re there to do a job, and my job at the end of the day is to put them over the bar. Maybe I’ll be having a bad day and it’ll fall to Gráinne (Delaney) or Kaylee (O’Keeffe), but as long as the ball goes over, I won’t care who hit it!”

A few minutes later, she picks up her hurl and prepares to walk the 200 metres down to Camross, to watch the club squad training. Whether it’s playing with Laois in Croke Park or back home, this is the world she was born into, and it’s also the world she chooses every day.