Stephanie Roche bowed out of Dancing with the Stars this weekend.
She was in the first dance-off of the season alongside Suzanne Jackson. Unfortunately it was Stephanie’s time to leave the show but she was delighted that she made it this far.
Speaking after the tense dance-off, her professional partner, Ervinas Merfeldas said that their goal was just not to be the first couple eliminated. And they made it to week seven.
No small feat.
Stephanie opened up about the most difficult part of the show, admitting that the “criticism” was definitely hard to take on the chin.
The judging panel Brain Redmond, Loraine Barry and Arthur Gourounlian have not held back when it came to critiquing the footballer for her moves.
“As a footballer, I’m well used to taking criticism and taking it on board. But sometimes when you’ve worked so hard all week on something and you have to take the criticism in the right way,” she explains.
“That can be a kick in the teeth sometimes. I don’t take any of that personally, they are experts so I have to take on board what they say. Could they, some weeks, put their comments a little bit different, a bit nicer? Possibly! But they’re there to do their job.”
Of course, there was definite disappointment that her time on the show has ended, she is very happy that she can now put all her focus on her football career.
“All of our games are usually on a Saturday but we have a game next Sunday. So my teammates will be happy that I will be at the match. It is nice to be able to fall back into it because I have been juggling both. I will fully focus on football now for the season.”
And she has no intention of slowing down when it comes to football.
“For me, with the World Cup coming up this year, I would like to give it one more season, possibly two,” she confesses.
As for TV, she’s not sure if she’ll be back as quickly admitting that after Dancin with the Stars and Hell Week she is happy to focus on football.
However, she adds: “I try to do stuff that has come my way, if you don’t life would be quite boring.”
Dancing with the Stars continues on RTÉ One on Sunday at 6:30pm
