MELISSA Duggan’s stunning end to 2019 continued last Saturday night as she received her Munster Ladies Footballer of the Year Award at the 2019 Munster GAA Awards.
The Dohenys footballer was honoured as the best in the province after her heroics for club and county in a memorable 2019. Just weeks after Melissa won her first All-Star award, the highly-rated defender scooped another prestigious accolade as she was honoured as the top ladies’ footballer in Munster for 2019.
It’s what she deserves after another eye-catching season that included playing a key role as Cork won the national league Division 1 title earlier in the year – Melissa scored a crucial goal against Dublin in the semi-final and was named on the Division 1 team of the league. She then helped Cork defend their Munster crown, and while Dublin ended the Rebels’ All-Ireland hopes at the semi-final stage, Melissa turned her attention to the Dohenys who, at last, won the county junior B football title.
In the last few weeks, as well as win an All-Star and her latest award, she also captained Munster to a second Ladies’ Football Interprovincial title in a row, a feat that was last achieved in 2004.
Speaking to the Star Sport Podcast recently, Melissa reflected on the low point of the season, the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Dublin, before backing Cork to bounce back next season.
‘That was disappointing, we had beaten them twice in the league so we were confident going in that we could beat them. On the day, things didn’t go our way, we turned the ball over too many times and we made too many mistakes that you can’t do at that level. We have to learn from that going into 2020,’ she said.
The other Cork winner at the Munster GAA Awards was Cathal O’Mahony who picked up the 2019 Munster GAA U20 Footballer of the Year award.
