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All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Semi-Final: Athenry (Galway) vs Loughgiel (Antrim),
All-Ireland Junior Club Championship Semi-Final: Four Roads (Roscommon) vs Lavey (
It is a busy weekend for camogie with both Antrim champions Loughgiel and Derry Champions featuring in All-Ireland Club Semi-Finals. Loughgiel face a tough test against Athenry of Galway, while Lavey take on Roscommon side Four Roads.
This is the second year that a club from Antrim has featured in the All-Ireland campaign and McKeown believes that the future looks good for the
Despite making the Antrim Championship their target team mentor Aiden McKeown is certain that the Loughgiel girls will not be going down to make up the numbers.
“”With Rossa going down and winning it last year we want to go down and give a good account of ourselves. The girls are all training hard and are really looking forward to it. We achieved a lot by winning the Antrim Championship, Rossa are a great side that we respect and they have improved the standard of camogie within the county but we know that we’re capable of doing it; the girls don’t want it to end.
“”We played Athenry in a friendly earlier in the season and they beat us. We know that they are a strong side and a very good team but we believe that it’s all about what happens on the day. An All-Ireland Final is everyone’s dream but there’s a lot of camogie still to be played, hopefully we’ll produce the goods,”” added McKeown.
Lavey meanwhile will be hoping to put the disappointment of last year behind them, the Derry side lost out to eventual champions Harps from Laois at the semi-final stage last year and although captain Siobhan Convery believes her side are using the pain of last year to drive them forward she admits there is still a lot of work to be done.
“”Everyone wants it there’s no doubt about that but wanting it and doing it is two different things; we just have to give it everything we have. We realise that we missed out last year but no one is going to hand us an All-Ireland title based on previous performances. Our management team have really pressed upon us this year that if you want to achieve something you’ve never done before you have to train at a level you’ve never trained at before so the intensity levels have really increased,”” said Convery.
Lavey came through a tough Ulster Final with Keady and Convery believes that this will stand by them in the Semi-Final: “”The Ulster Final is as good a preparation as you could want, Keady are a fine team and physical as well so it’s good to be facing teams like that when you want to be progressing to the All-Ireland stage.””
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