by Daragh Ó Conchúir at FBD Semple Stadium
David Sullivan was pleased for his players to get some silverware and fuel the rebuild of camogie in Offaly, after they overcame a spirited Derry by 4-13 to 0-10.
It seems like more or less everything is on the up and up in the land of the Faithful, with even the county’s folk hero, Shane Lowry flying the flag on a patch of green grass in Augusta.
At FBD Semple Stadium, it was all about the camogs, however and following the improvement in fortunes of the hurlers and footballers, they relished doing their bit for the green, white and gold.
And this was a targeted step up the ladder.
Offaly manager, David Sullivan (INPHO/Ben Brady)
“There’s a lot of work gone into this since last November,” said Sullivan. “We’ve really gone after this competition. We really wanted it. There’s no point in saying anything different and it’s great the work has come to fruition today.
“Sometimes you have to go down to get back up. They had a chance to go down and probably stayed senior a year too long in my opinion and got some bad beatings which didn’t do them any good but this group have been great.
“This is a very young team, with lots of players under the age of 20 and they will take a lot from this. And then we have a few experienced players to help guide them.”
The Teehan cousins, Mairéad and Grace, are among that select latter cohort, and they scored 2-4 apiece. Mairéad’s contribution was all from play, with the brace of goals coming in the first half after Laura Coyle had denied her and Faye Mulrooney.
Then, after Derry hit five points on the trot early in the second half from Rachel McAllister, Aimee Lennon, Lauren McKenna and Orlaith Hull (two frees), it was Grace that stopped any potential fightback in its tracks with a 43rd minute goal and she followed up with another, 11 minutes later to make the victory certain.
“Mairéad and Grace are very good in that regard and they got them big scores today.
“In truth, we should have been much further ahead at half-time as we wasted a lot of chances but hopefully that will come with experience. It got a bit panicky ten minutes into the second half, Derry got a bit of momentum but once we got the third goal, that was the end of the game.
“We will look to the Leinster Championship now and then the All-Ireland, but it’s nice to be going into them with a League medal, and to be promoted to 1B for next year. It’s brilliant and fantastic for Offaly in general.”
Derry boss, Eamon Melaugh felt it was part of a learning curve for his own young squad of players, with nerves a factor in how they started the game.
He has had to plan without supremely talented and experienced performers such as Áine Barton and Bríd Rogers for this season, while the likes of Aoife Ní Chaiside are rehabbing injuries. Lauren McKenna was making her first start in nearly 12 months after her own injury issues.
The game’s first scorer, Éabha McElhinney is still in school and days like yesterday, while disappointing, should teach them plenty.
“The goals killed us in the first half,” said Melaugh. “Offaly got the goals at the right time in the second half. We were coming back at them but they got the killer goal. We had them back to five points, everything was going well but that killer goal was a real sucker punch.
“The first half, we more or less handed them goals and at this level, you can’t give away goals like that.
“But we’ve a very young squad and hopefully the players that are missing, we’ll have them all back next year. We lost 13 players from last year for different reasons, and eight or nine of them would have been starting. But we’ve a lot of young girls and they’re working hard, they showed a lot of heart there.
“The Kerry game and the Meath game, they showed how well they can play and I don’t think they played as well as they can today. I think the occasion did get to them. I noticed it in the warm-up and then at the start of the game, the first touch wasn’t there.
“But they showed a lot of character at the start of the second half, came back at them but it unfortunately didn’t go our way and we’ll be back next year hopefully.”
