By Daire Walsh

IT might be almost eight years since she donned the colours of her native Derry in an All-Ireland final at Croke Park, but Annie Crozier remains hopeful of once again featuring on the biggest day in the LGFA’s annual calendar.

Back on September 24, 2017, Crozier scored a point from right corner-forward as the Oakleaf County drew with provincial rivals Fermanagh in a TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship final in the north Dublin venue.

The Ballymaguigan star also raised a white flag when Derry lost out to the Erne women in a replayed encounter held at St Tiernach’s Park, Clones a fortnight later and this is to date the most recent appearance by the county in an adult championship decider.

Yet while there are a lot of new faces to the panel this year, Oakleaf captain Crozier is optimistic they can develop the right blend that is needed to seriously challenge for the West County Hotel Cup later on this year.

“Obviously we’re using national league as that building process and getting to know each other as a team. Hopefully come championship we’ll be able to tighten up on all that and push on. We don’t want to just go and to just make up games. We want to be competing,” Crozier said.

“It [making the junior final in 2017] just shows what is possible, whenever you get a good squad of girls together and you’re all working towards one target. Obviously that would be the main aim, to get back there. That was us against Fermanagh in 2017 and you see what they have done since that. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be pushing on to achieve the same.”

Although he had stepped away from the set-up by the time they made it to the All-Ireland junior final, Derry had begun the 2017 season with Crozier’s father Paul in charge of the team. He would later return to the managerial post for the start of the following year – by which point Annie had opted to spend a gap year in Australia.

Paul Crozier was far from being the first member of the St Trea’s Ballymaguigan club to manage Derry at inter-county level as the late duo of Jim McKeever and Eamonn Coleman (an All-Ireland winning boss in 1993) were both in charge of the men’s team on more than one occasion.

Additionally, Paul’s brother (and Annie’s uncle) Paddy Crozier also enjoyed a stint as Derry senior men’s football manager. After leading the Oak Leaf to an All-Ireland senior football championship quarter-final in 2007, he went on to guide his county to a National Football League Division One title a year later.

“We were Derry die-hards coming up through the years. Used to be going out to support him [Paddy]. We would have been only eight or nine at the time. I remember us all going as a family. Full Derry kits, red and white headbands. You were die-hards from day dot. It was always running through the family,” Annie said of her uncle’s time as Derry supremo.

After she eventually returned home from her journey to the southern hemisphere, Crozier opted to apply for an apprenticeship as an engineer with Heron Bros – an award-winning project development and construction company that operates across Ireland, the UK and Europe.

Following two years as an apprentice, she became fully qualified with Heron Bros and is currently working as a site engineer in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. In one of the biggest projects they have ever taken on, Heron are building a shared education campus between Cross & Passion College and Ballycastle High School.

The combination of early working hours and a sizeable commute means it can be tricky for her to achieve a perfect balance between her professional and sporting pursuits, but Crozier believes she has found a way to make it sustainable.

“That was always something that you had to consider because to try and balance it, obviously you’re up early in the morning. Six o’clock leaving the house and then having your full day on site. 7.30 to 4.30 is the hours and then obviously Ballycastle, it’s an hour drive for me.

“Trying to balance that, having your early mornings and then you’re not home until late from training. It’s just hard getting the perfect balance sometimes, but I know no different at this point. That’s the routine. It’s busy nights, long days, but you just get used to it.”

However, Crozier recently managed to get away from the demands of both work and football for at least a little while as she spent some time in France on a skiing trip.

“That was my fourth time skiing. It was the first year I did it without lessons, so it was nice getting a bit of freedom and going on the slopes. Towards the end of the week we were feeling a bit leggy and we were ready for home!”

This overseas sojourn saw her missing out on Derry’s Lidl National Football League Division 4 clash with 2024 TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship winners Leitrim in Kiltubrid on February 2, but she was back in harness when the Ulster outfit took on Sligo last Sunday at Owenbeg.

Though there were only four points between the teams in the end (0-11 to 1-4), the Sligo game represented Derry’s fourth straight reversal in this year’s league.

Yet this was also their first home fixture of the year with their round two bout against Fermanagh – squeezed in between trips to Longford and Leitrim – having been moved from Owenbeg to Lifford in Donegal due to the inclement weather conditions brought about by Storm Éowyn.

Tomorrow’s clash with Wicklow in Owenbeg will be followed by games against Kilkenny (away) and Antrim (home) in the coming weeks and Crozier is confident that getting a win under their belts will help them to start moving steadily in the right direction ahead of their campaigns in the TG4 Ulster and All-Ireland championships.

“It would be nice to push on, get a win under our belt and try and get a few points on the board. Obviously we’ll be keeping the heads down and trying to push on for that,” Crozier added.