Katie Taylor the footballer | "She could've been our next Roy Keane!": Méabh De Búrca & Olivia O'Toole

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OTB Football 24 min 2 speakers 6 chapters transcribed 11 days ago
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Dara Smith-Naughton 0:00
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Paul Lambert 0:22
Off the ball
Dara Smith-Naughton 0:23
daily.
Paul Lambert 0:25
Right then, ahead of Saturday night we are now focusing on Katie Taylor, the footballer, and I'm very happy to say that Maeve DeBurka and Olivio Toole, former teammates, are with us on the line. Good evening to you both, folks. Uh let's I guess understand the credentials here first of all before we go any further. Maeve, uh to you first of all, you would have played quite a bit with Katie Taylor.
Méabh De Búrca 0:45
Yeah, I would have um just with a senior team really. She was a couple of years um older than me, so never got to play underage with her. But yeah, I remember her from from a few um senior camps. She obviously had to kind of pick and choose a little bit because her main focus was always the boxing. But um yeah, what a talented footballer she was.
Paul Lambert 1:04
Uh Olivia, for you, what was your connection with Katie?
Olivia O'Toole 1:07
I played with Kate as well for at least four years with the senior Irish team, not on that age. And as Mae's said, she could have been um in ex Ray Keen. But she wanted to be a boxer, like she wanted it that was her life. You know, so I actually have a good story about Kate we were in Portugal. Remember Portugal M F?
Méabh De Búrca 1:28
Yeah, I do, yeah.
Olivia O'Toole 1:30
Yeah, and um Katie used to grow up at six o'clock in the morning. Go on her on, do our walk out. Then come back to us in the breakfast room, have a breakfast and then do her training. So that's how much she was dedicated to our boxing.

Who were Katie Taylor’s teammates and what roles did they play in recalling her football career?

Olivia O'Toole 1:46
And I actually asked her, I said, What like what is your what do you want? She says, Olivia, I love football. She said, My passion is uh boxing. And when I would by looking at her and uh a passion for it, I said, You're going to be a professional, but you're going to be brilliant. And she says to me, She says, Oh yes, I'm going to open doors for women and girls. She said that to me ten years ago, twenty years ago, fifteen years ago. Do you know what I mean? So that's how much she wanted this where she is, like in the Olympics now and She's got to achieve and everything that she actually says to me. Damn. That's m how much of a woman she is, how much she keeps to a you know, honourable woman. She's so humble, like that's that's just Katie and I was like, Really, is that what you want to do?
Olivia O'Toole 2:33
And she was only like twenty two, twenty three. at the time and she says, Yeah, Livy, that's what I want to do. So You know, that's what she wanted to do and she's doing it now and she's just paved the way for So many girls and so many boxers, professional boxers now and amateur boxers now. That uh going into the w the gyms now and all the the girls want to do is box. You know, so she's I she's just a an amazing woman and I've always um Loved, I've always loved. The fact that she fought for women's football all her life, but Did our own fighting at the same time. You know what I mean?
Paul Lambert 3:14
What what type of footballer was she, Mave?
Méabh De Búrca 3:17
Um I suppose it'd think of her really the physicality and the strength side was her obviously her main attributes coming from boxing as well. And I'd always remember, you know, just always been on her toes, up on the balls of her feet. Like you would, you know, would tell as a coach you'd you'd tell players to do that. But she was always ready to pounce on the next ball or the next tackle. Um you'd nearly bounce off her like she wasn't ever a like huge in stature, but she was strong. strong um on the pitch and yeah you could see that and just um you know technically because she probably didn't put as much um time and energy into the technical side because of her yeah because she had so much commitments boxing wise but she really I think um showed her s yeah her strength and physicality was definitely to the fore any time she was on the pitch.
Paul Lambert 4:04
But she was a central midfielder.
Méabh De Búrca 4:06
Yeah, she was. Yeah. She played up front a bit as well, I think.

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