by Daragh Ó Conchúir
Antrim manager, Willie Devlin hailed the willingness and ability of his players to adapt to a new possession-based and forward-friendly style of play and they reaped the rewards when defeating Laois 1-27 to 2-9 and winning their second Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor A Shield in three seasons at UPMC Nowlan Park yesterday.
An eighth minute goal gave the Saffrons a good start, though Emer Murphy shook the net at the other end and Laura Culleton also goaled, to leave the winners leading by 1-9 to 2-4 at the interval.
The pace, support play and finishing of the Antrim girls proved too much for the brave midlanders, however, particularly as they began to tire in the final 15 minutes, as player of the match Eva McNeill finished with nine points from midfield, four of which came from placed balls, and Amy McAllister slotted seven from play.
“Some of the camogie they were playing was superb,” said Devlin afterwards. “To score 1-27 today is just superb. I think Kady McNeill, who’s an excellent captain, said it today. They put their bodies on the line for each other. They’re such a great group of girls and individuals to work with and I’m just delighted they got over the line.
“We tried to change the way the girls were playing this year, use a bit of short passing. We’ve a lot of dual players in that team and they understand movement on the pitch. We didn’t want to be hitting that ball away. We wanted to work it through the lines.
“You saw our inside forward line, we wanted to give them to right ball. We’ve been working on that all through the season and it does take a huge amount of trust in the girls… Fair play to the girls, they took it on board.”
Kady McNeill (photographed above), who was involved when Antrim last won the title in 2023, emphasised that while she may have had the metaphorical armband, the team was littered with captains.
“I don’t know if you can describe it,” described the triumphant skipper. “I was part of this team two years ago that won and it’s the exact same feeling. The work these girls put in, every training, every match, whether it’s hailstones, sunny, windy, whatever, they dig deep and they dig for each other and to know that the hard work they’ve put in has finally worked, I’m just so proud of every single one of those girls.
“You need a team that will fight for each other… and every one of those girls is a leader.”
The Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor B and C finals took place on Saturday, and Armagh took the spoils in the B decider at St Peregrines, a hat-trick of goals from Aoibhinn Donohue providing the foundation of their 4-14 to 1-8 success.
Team captain, Fiadhna Loughran earned the player-of-the-match gong after an inspirational performance and the excellent Laoise McConnell supplied the other goal, while Dáire O’Shea led the resistance from Down with five points and Hannah Shields scored a brilliant goal for the Mourne goals.
“It’s been six months of work (for this team), four years for me, Geraldine (Quinn), Ned (McCann)and the backroom team,” Armagh manager, Paul Monahan declared.
“We lost out last year. Factors outside our control didn’t help, couple of injuries and stuff. We said at the start of the year we were going to get to an All-Ireland final… we knew we were coming here to lift an All-Ireland trophy. And we done it.
“At half-time we said not to panic. We lost our shape around the middle of the field a wee bit. We’ve been preaching all year, the first six minutes of the game and the last seven minutes and just said at half-time, we’d get another good start and that’s what we got.”
In Kinnegad, another hat-trick, this time from Muireann Darcy ensured that Wicklow overcame the Tyrone challenge by 5-8 to 1-8 in the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor C final.
Charlotte Doyle and Rebecca Murphy also shook the rigging for Wicklow, while Emer Cunningham grabbed a late goal for Tyrone but the Red Hands were shellshocked by conceding goals to Darcy 40 seconds into the first half, and 45 seconds into the second, and were unable to recover.
Wicklow manager Vinny Byrne was also a selector of the U16 squad that secured All-Ireland honours the previous week and he believed that lessons learned when his charges lost in the opening round of the group phases up north proved invaluable.
“We gave them a good game in Round 1 and we were a bit rusty starting off, it was early in the year,” Byrne noted.
“We knew we had a talented bunch of girls but with these groups, you’re travelling long distances for matches, so you’re straight off a bus and nearly into a match and it’s very hard first half to get it out of your legs. I knew we had something good here and if we could build on it, we’d definitely reach final.
“I couldn’t believe the start we got. But we said we’d drive at them early doors and if opportunities arise, we’d take them. We set our stall out after that trip to Tyrone, that we’d get to venues early, get the warm-up into them and get their legs moving and it paid off today
“It’s unbelievable for Wicklow camogie to have an achievement like this, it’s fabulous. I only hope these girls go on to play adult camogie and are ambassadors through their clubs ‘cos they’re an unbelievable bunch of girls and talent is bouncing out of them.”
