Quinlisk rediscovers her hunger after stepping away from the game

By Thomas Conway

Taking a step back is never easy. It requires a certain degree of courage and carries with it an element of risk. So, when Amy Quinlisk opted to walk away from camogie around the age of 17, it was a brave move.

Quinlisk is nothing if not self-assured. The Kilruane MacDonaghs clubwoman comes across as a good decision-maker - a calm, confident kind of person who makes a choice and then owns it.

Despite being a stand-out player for her club and featuring on Tipperary U14 & U16 squads, Quinlisk’s relationship with camogie had spiralled downwards. Put simply, she wasn’t enjoying it and so she took a step back. It was possibly the best decision she has ever made.

“Taking that break was probably the best thing I’ve ever done,” she admits.

“I had kind of fallen out of love with playing the game, with playing camogie. Nothing really happened to trigger it, that’s just the way it was. Then Covid happened and I came back playing, and I had more of a hunger for the game.”

Her progression since then has been extraordinary, especially when you consider the fact that she lost several years which are usually critical to a player’s development. The corner-back has, in the space of a few short months, evolved into a crucial component of a powerful Tipperary back-line.

She is learning and maturing with every game but is still relatively new to the position. However, she feels she has always had a defensive instinct.

“Traditionally I’ve always been a midfielder or a forward, but this year anyway the lads decided to put me in at corner-back and to be fair, it made sense,” she says.

“I’m naturally defensive - even when I was playing in the forwards, I was still kind of defending as opposed to attacking.”

Confidence boost

Quinlisk is yet further proof of the importance of having a second squad in a county like Tipperary, where the standard of camogie is generally sky high.

Former multi-team manager Bill Mullaney and his management crew again have to take some credit here. They were the ones who first brought Quinlisk into the Premier Junior squad, where she quickly cemented her place at midfield.

She smiles when asked to recall Tipp’s dramatic one-point All-Ireland final victory over Laois in August 2024.

It was a proud moment, but Quinlisk also says that for her, it was a massive “confidence boost” which instilled in her the belief that she could push on and go further.

Two years on, she has done exactly that and now looks both confident and settled at senior level. But she says she is “under no illusions,” nor are Tipp.

Their Munster Final triumph was great and the squad worked hard to earn it, but Quinlisk describes it as “a stepping stone to where we want to go and what we want to achieve this year.”

Having graduated with a degree in applied biology, bioanalysis, and biotechnology, Quinlisk is now working with Eli Lilly in Limerick.

Clearly, she has an analytical brain, which is probably part of the reason she has adapted so well to the corner-back position.

She speaks enthusiastically about her work and has a naturally cheerful demeanour. Sharp, quick, and skilful as a player, Quinlisk has all the attributes to excel in the All-Ireland series, but she will be tested. She is all too aware of the dangers posed by inside forwards such as the likes of Galway’s Carrie Dolan.

Asked to name the biggest influence on her camogie career, she immediately cites her dad, Tom.

“He was the one who got me out onto the field in the first place, and I sort of fell in love with it then,” she concluded.