By Daragh Ó Conchúir at UPMC Nowlan Park
They may have been played it down a little bit yesterday, but given how downhearted they were following the defeat to Antrim in last year’s final, it felt like an important result for Clare to be crowned Centra Camogie League Division 1B champions by virtue of a 3-11 to 0-17 verdict over Dublin.
The ultimate reward is a place at the top table, which is probably coming at just the right time in the life cycle of this squad, and the work Eugene Foudy is continuing from John Carmody.
But when national trophies aren’t a regular currency, it is important to relish it when you have them, and deep down, there was no doubt the Clare players did just that.
Their joint skipper, Clare Hehir was monumental in this victory, as part of a stellar defensive unit that laid the foundation for this victory in the first half, ensuring that Dublin led by only two points, 0-9 to 0-7 at the change of ends.
Lorna McNamara scored two goals and sub Áine O’Loughlin another in the second half, while another sub, Ellen Casey had a big impact also.
Dublin battled hard, and Aisling Maher and Gaby Couch excelled but they could not make up the concession of the three-pointers without notching at least one themselves.
Hehir tried to contextualise it all but came down on the side of merited celebrations.
“The goal is getting to a final and when you get there, you want to win it. I think we put in a performance we can be proud of and one that was good enough to win the game,” the pragmatic wing-back declared.
“There’s a strong wind and you know it’s going to be slog, so you want to narrow the deficit as much as you can and we did that. But then at the same time, the wind doesn’t win you anything so we had to push on again.
“You could see the subs that came on, the impact they had. They won us the game, simple as. They had it in the tank to finish strong and the goals were key. Lorna got two and Áine got one. We have a good panel now and that’s something we’ve been working on the last few years.
“We haven’t that much silverware so we’re going to appreciate while we can.”
McNamara carried a similar tone.
“Absolutely delighted,” the full-forward stated. “Obviously it’s the League but at the same time, it was our goal at the start of the year to win this. It’s something ticked off the list and it will give us a great boost coming into the Championship.
“We were quite confident going out playing with the wind in the second half, going in at half-time two points down. We knew in the first 10 minutes of the first half, Dublin would bring a lot of physicality to it and we’re just happy to get the better of it.”
McNamara revealed that her second goal, a rugby-style intercept and resounding finish, came as a result of opposition analysis.
“Looking at them, they obviously like playing across the goal to the goalkeeper and I was aware of that and looking out for the opportunity and glad to take the chance when it came.”
Dublin attacker, Aisling O’Neill was “very disappointed,” more so by the performance than the result.
“ We didn’t show up today,” said O’Neill. “It feels like we didn’t perform. There was only three points in it in the end, so we feel a bit sick. We’ll have to turn it around for next week in the Leinster Championship.
“We probably didn’t do enough with the wind. We’ll just have to move on.”
