Football

Multi-talented Neamh Woods relishing demanding schedule

Tyrone's Neamh Woods (left) tackles Waterford's Eimear Fennell
Tyrone's Neamh Woods (left) tackles Waterford's Eimear Fennell Tyrone's Neamh Woods (left) tackles Waterford's Eimear Fennell

WHETHER it’s a Division Two game for Tyrone on her own club pitch at Drumragh Sarsfields, or a Nations Cup final for Northern Ireland in Singapore, Neamh Woods does not differentiate between two sports she loves.

And to get the chance to play both ladies football and netball, equally, without having to choose one over the other, is any dual sportsperson’s wish.

It’s not easy done, but right now she wouldn’t have it any other way.

And it’s even all even more worthwhile at the minute because later this month she is off to Australia's warm and sunny Gold Coast with the Northern Ireland senior netball squad to compete in the Commonwealth Games, with a training camp stop-off in Tasmania en route.

She’s hoping, and fully confident too, in her Red Hands team-mates that she will be coming back home days before a Division Two league semi-final.

The Tyrone captain had hoped to fit in one last game with Tyrone prior to her Commonwealth Games departure tomorrow against Cavan but the planned curtain raiser to a Healy Park double header with the county’s senior men’s team has fallen foul of the weather along with all GAA games this weekend.

She would have liked too to have saw Tyrone get back to winning ways after back-to-back defeats as they eye up a top four finish and semi-final spot with three games remaining.

“It’s an important game and I am disappointed to be missing the fixture, but there’s nothing we can do about the weather,” she said.

“I am the only one missing for the latter end of the league and I have no doubt that whoever steps into the half back line will do as good a job if not better than me.

“The defeat to Armagh, we were not expecting and we have not had a defeat like that for a number of years.

We simply did not perform as well as we should. But I know we will learn from it and in training this week the players have upped the intensity. From here on in, each game we play really is a championship game if we want to make the semi-finals.”

Balancing the two sports, and her full-time job as a PE teacher in St Ciaran’s Ballygawley, is no mean feat.

There’s not a night in the week that she is in the house, and weekends are hectic too, playing and training for four teams, that also includes her clubs Drumragh and Larkfield, who are based in Lisburn.

“I’m training seven days a week and sometimes twice in the one day but if didn’t love it I would not do it,” said Woods, who was introduced to netball by her secondary school teacher Dympna Slowey in Sacred Heart Omagh.

And as long as she is fit and able to, she will continue to compete at the highest level. As she says, “you’re a long time retired!”

“Yes you have to make a lot of sacrifices but both sports work well together. I have friends who say to me being a teacher do I not want to go away for the entire summer but I tell them I can do that when I finish playing sport. I will continue to play for as long as I can because you are a long time retired. In 2012 I missed a year after hip surgery and when that sort of thing happens you it’s a bit of a reality check because that opportunity to play the sports you love is taken away and so any time you do get the opportunity to play you take it.”

Woods, who has come through the NI ranks from under 17 to 19 to 21 through to senior, is one of three current ladies footballers on the NI squad – Antrim’s Michelle Magee and Armagh’s Caroline O’Hanlon, who is also the NI captain while former Antrim and St Galls player Michelle Drayne is also part of the team.

“The two sports complement each other so well. You have the handling skills, the spatial awareness and the speed and agility and are profound in both and it’s good to see a few ladies footballers playing both like Caroline and Michelle Magee.”

She will train away with Tyrone until the time comes to depart to Tasmania on March 23rd by which time hopefully the fact she will compete at the Commonwealth Games will have sunk in, and she will have all her lesson plans for the next month complete.

“I am lucky I have great support from the principal Mr Lavery. But like any job, you have to be organised and manage time efficiently and I am very organised and the students work well with me and that makes it easier too.

“I don’t think it has really sunk in yet that I am heading to the Commonwealth Games in a few weeks’ time. It is an amazing opportunity and it will be a breadth of fresh air for me being away from the training pitch, among a different circle of friends. It’s my first Commonwealth Games as back in 2012 I was only returning from injury. It is a big thing as close to the Olympics as it gets.”

Lidl National Football League Division Three

DOWN’s fortunes look to be on the up but it’s not luck that has turned it around for the Mourne County in Division Three this year.

The 2017 season saw Ryan McShane’s side record just one win, that coming against Limerick in the Division Three league and was enough to ensure they stayed in that league tier.

The last few years have been about rebuilding for the Mourne County and without putting a writer’s curse on them it seems to be that we are starting to see the fruits of all that hard work and taking those defeats on the chin and learning from it.

They already have two league wins in the bag ensuring Division Three safety at the very least and are in contention for a place in the semi-finals with a game in hand and three still to play.

“When I took on this role last season I said the rebuilding was not going to be an overnight job and even this season will not produce the finished project but we are getting there,” said McShane who also has former county star Kyla Trainor on his management team along with Damian Sherry and Kevin Leneghan.

“We did a lot of work during the winter and we have been able to get some players back on board and with the younger girls from last season, we are beginning to go in the right direction.”

A league semi-final is the target and having those couple of wins already under their belt has instilled even more belief and confidence in the players.

“We have targeted a top four league spot this season and so far we remain on target for that. The first league game against Meath was a big setback; we were static and stale and didn’t perform, but we saw how the players responded against Roscommon and we followed that up with the win over Offaly. We still have Longford and Leitrim to play but will not take them for granted as playing teams chasing their first wins can leave you on very dicey territory.

“I feel that if this panel sticks together they will go far and I keep telling them that. It’s amazing to see the difference standing on the sideline or the training field when players have the belief and confidence in themselves that they can compete and win against the big teams in the league.”

THE four leagues are now through the halfway mark and it is not looking too bad for Ulster counties and semi-final berths.

A full round of fixtures had been scheduled for this weekend, however the LGFA postponed these yesterday afternoon due to the severe weather conditions following the GAA’s call to also postpone their Allianz football and hurling leagues fixtures.

Division Three and Four round five fixtures will now take place on the weekend of March 17/18 with Division One and Two counties playing their games on the weekend of April 7/8.

Currently, four teams are sitting in the top four of their respective league tables and three others’ hopes of making the knockout stages are still very much alive.

In Division One, Donegal with top tier status secure for another year, are on course for back-to-back semi-finals and they came so close to clinching a first ever Division One title last year only to lose to champions Cork by the narrowest of margins.

Monaghan’s only victory over Kerry in round three was crucial in their fight for survival in Division One. They have a big game too coming up against winless Westmeath at the end of the month which, if they win, will cement their division one status for an impressive 27 season.

In Division Two, Armagh and Cavan sit in third and fourth place and very much in control of their own destiny while Tyrone are just outside the top four needing to pick up wins in their final three games if they are to give themselves a chance of making the semi-finals.

Down are currently fifth in the Division Three table but do have a game in hand after their round 3 game against Longford was postponed a few weeks back because of the weather.

They are in a great position to push for the last semi-final berth and their victory over Roscommon in round two could turn out to be vital.

Fermanagh too are in a good place to make the Division Four semi-finals for the second year in a row while Antrim who are just outside the top four are not out of the running either yet but need to pick up a couple more wins to give them every chance of getting back to a league final. Derry are yet to pick up a win and that will be their target from their remaining three games.