Parts of inter-county football that Samantha Lambert misses
LGFA Gaelic4Teens ambassador Samantha Lambert during the 2023 ZuCar Gaelic4Teens Festival Day at the GAA National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. (Photo: Ben McShane/Sportsfile)
The Ardfinnan star ended her career with the Premier County on January 21, 2021, having won three TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship titles, two of which she had won as captain in 2017 and 2019.
Later this month, Tipperary's current football team, a senior championship team since the subsequent victory over Meath, will take on Cavan in the Lidl National Football League Division 2 opener. Though she used to love this time of year the most, the Comeragh College teacher in Carrick-on-Suir has managed to move on from the top division of women's football.
“I miss the girls more so than anything, the socialising with them. They become your family really and a lot of my best friends are and were playing county football. I do miss them a lot and I love the intensity of training, the hard slog this time of year as well. That’s why I loved it, most people would be the opposite way around,” Lambert explained.
“It was great to be back fit and feeling fit, looking forward to the league games. Definitely, I do miss it, but at the same time I’ve a lot going on now that keeps my mind busy and keeps me busy too.”
In addition to playing at the club level for Ardfinnan and expecting a child in 2023, Lambert has been working on several causes that are close to her heart ever since she parted ways with Tipperary.
SCHOOLS PROGRAMME
She started serving as an ambassador for the LGFA's ZuCar Gaelic4Teens programme in the beginning of 2022. This coach education-based approach aims to boost the retention rate of teenage ladies in clubs where dropout rates are often higher, namely among girls aged 13 to 17.
Furthermore, Lambert has recently taken a leading role in Lidl's #SeriousSupport schools initiative. This initiative, which is sponsored by the LGFA and run by Youth Sport Trust and its highly trained athlete mentors, aims to inform adolescent girls about the advantages playing women football has for both their physical and mental health.
“I’ve been doing that (#SeriousSupport) for the last three years and I really, really enjoy it. Just using sport to transform the lives of young people. To share my story and how sport has helped me be successful on and off the pitch.
"The Gaelic4Teens as well, that is more so to do with the coaches rather than the girls. It’s just frightening for me. I’m a secondary school teacher as well, and the stats that are there. By the age of 13, one in two girls drop out of sport, and girls are three times more likely to give up sport than boys. I’m hugely passionate because I know what sport has done for me.
“I would hope that other girls that are younger than me will get the same out of it as what I’ve got because it’s just invaluable really. I wouldn’t be where I am today or have gotten the opportunities that I’ve gotten if I hadn’t played county football for Tipperary. I find myself very privileged and in a lucky position where I am today.”
LIFE-CHANGING’ AFRICAN TRIP
Lambert also acknowledges that it was thanks to her football career in Tipperary that she was able to go to Kenya in November of last year to attend the 2023 'Plant The Planet' Games. This initiative was started by former Galway dual star Alan Kerins, the CEO and founder of Warriors for Humanity. It was first implemented in 2022 when fifty current and former inter-county players from the GAA, LGFA, and Camogie Association traveled to Africa for a week to plant trees in response to the devastating effects of climate change and to raise awareness of Self Help Africa's work.
Numerous participants in the 2022 trip referred to it as "life-changing," and Lambert came back from Kenya with a similar outlook.
“It was something that I’ll never forget. It was just absolutely amazing, inspiring and humbling. A seriously rewarding trip that really opened my eyes to what is going on in the world. How privileged we are. We really are just lucky to have what we have and we don’t realise it".
“We moan about the small little things and there’s a lot of bigger problems in the world. You can look at all the pictures in the world or someone might tell you about it, but when you see it in the flesh, that’s when you really realise that we are a very privileged bunch of people here in Ireland. We should really appreciate what we have".
“As I said already, sport has done so much for me. I wouldn’t have had that opportunity to go only for sport and for ladies football. Then to go on a trip like that with nearly 50 other GAA players. We were like best friends coming home. It was just remarkable and a life-changing experience".