Hurling & Camogie

Loughgiel Shamrocks could spring surprise on Slaughtneil camogs

Slaughtneil's Siobhan McKaigue with Emma McMullan and Chloe Higgins of Loughgiel during the 2016 Ulster Senior Club Camogie final replay at Maghera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin.
Slaughtneil's Siobhan McKaigue with Emma McMullan and Chloe Higgins of Loughgiel during the 2016 Ulster Senior Club Camogie final replay at Maghera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin. Slaughtneil's Siobhan McKaigue with Emma McMullan and Chloe Higgins of Loughgiel during the 2016 Ulster Senior Club Camogie final replay at Maghera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin.

NWP Ulster Senior club final: Sunday October 21 at 2.30pm in O’Neill Park Dungannon

Slaughtneil Emmett’s (Derry) v Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim)

WHEN PJ O’Mullan took over as manager of the Loughgiel senior camogie panel at the start of 2018, this Ulster final in October was always going to be the only game that really counted.

Like Slaughtneil in Derry, Loughgiel were considered so far ahead of the pack in Antrim that there was little doubt that they would go through the season unbeaten as they had done last year.

This is the Shamrocks’ first serious test since last year’s Ulster final in the Athletic Grounds when not even a brilliant start from the Saffron champions could derail Slaughtneil’s bid for back-to-back titles.

The Emmett’s went on to claim a second successive All-Ireland and have not been beaten in championship now since Loughgiel edged them in the 2015 final.

Indeed their last serious test was at the end of the March in the delayed All-Ireland final in Clones.

It is fair to say that both clubs will have the core of last October’s team on show again tomorrow (SUNDAY), but that both are also altered in some way or other.

Slaughtneil had to replace Claire McGrath and the McGuigans, Dervla and Denise, who were all unavailable this season.

Last October Shannon Graham had just returned from travelling and only came on for the last quarter when Slaughtneil were already closing in on Loughgiel’s lead.

Shannon, of course, went on to play a key role in the All-Ireland campaign and has been in scintillating form at midfield this season beside Cliodhna Mulholland who had not featured last season at all.

Also into the team has come Orla McNeill in defence and last year’s regular second half sub, Céat McEldowney, although there is a question mark as to where she will feature.

In the Derry quarter-final against Ballinascreen with Therese Mellon still to return from injury, Céat played at corner-forward and scored 2-3.

A fortnight later in the Derry final, she turned in a very competent performance at corner-back; a more than useful utility player giving the management options.

Loughgiel have a couple of personnel changes, injury holding the experienced Emma McMullan as a substitute while several other players were key to the extended run of the Intermediate team.

Back into the team is the experienced Charlene Campbell after maternity leave – but at corner-back as opposed to her normal midfield/half-forward role.

And she is one of several positional changes this year that look to have freshened up the team.

The problem for both teams is still the lack of competition in their domestic competitions.

Winning matches by 20 or more points does not really prepare a team for an Ulster final showdown – and it is questionable whether challenge games give the management enough ideas of alternatives when the pressure is on.

The pressure will be on for both teams on Sunday, but in a way Loughgiel should be able to approach the game with a little less of it than the champions who have to start as favourites.

From what I have seen this year both teams are in tremendous shape and the winner would have to be in the frame to add the All-Ireland title, albeit that the semi-finals are still nearly three months ahead.

Both teams have great presence all over the pitch, allied to pace and tactical nuance.

Perhaps Slaughtneil have the edge in actual game management and that experience of having secured back to back titles.

But it would be no surprise if the Shamrocks caught them.

NWP Recycling Ulster Junior club final

Saturday October 20 at 1.30pm in Moy: Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim) v Crosserlough (Cavan)

JUST like their senior team, Loughgiel Shamrocks enter the NWP Recycling Ulster Junior club final on Saturday attempting to dethrone the holders.

Cavan champions Crosserlough came from behind with two goals in the final quarter of last year’s final to beat Brídíní Óga Glenravel by a margin of 2-7 to 0-8.

The Glenravel side was the only one to come close to Loughgiel this year, running the Shamrocks to coincidently a five points’ margin (3-6 to 2-4) in the Antrim final at the end of January.

Loughgiel has won every other game in the Antrim league and championship by a wide margin and they continued that trend last Sunday with a 6-19 to 0-4 win over Derrylaughan at the lough-shore venue.

The Shamrocks are a sharp outfit up front with a solid defensive structure, wing forwards that will stretch any defence with their pace and probing and then the cutting edge in the centre from goal-grabbing full-forward Charley McCarry and Kirsty McKendry at centre-half forward who is also the free-taker.

When they were under pressure in the Antrim final, they brought in two more young players Anna Connolly and Annie Lynn who tipped the scales in their favour and both came in against Derrylaughan during the second half on Sunday to pick off points.

Crosserlough’s passage to this stage has been more about getting over the line in each game than running up high scores.

They were held to a draw in the Cavan final by Laragh, but edged home in the replay before absorbing poor starts against both Bredagh and Bellaghy in Ulster to wear their opponents down.

They achieved a 3-6 to 2-7 win over Bellaghy on Sunday past by scoring just 1-1 in the second half and holding out under sustained pressure from the home side.

There will be a contrast in styles as the Cavan team are more physical in the tackle and support each other like footballers, which of course most of them are, reaching a provincial club decider last year as well as winning the camogie title.

But that also means that their build ups tend to be slower than Loughgiel’s where the emphasis is on the quick ball into space. The pace of the Loughgiel play might therefore trouble the Crosserlough rear-guard where captain Erinn Galligan, full-back Sinead Coyle and the rest of the defence are most comfortable when the play is kept nice and tight.

I would expect midfield to be evenly fought, while Sinead McKenna, Emer McVeety and the Finnegans will impose themselves on the Antrim side’s defence.

However such has been Loughgiel’s dominance in games this season that it is difficult to see them beaten today (Saturday).

Crosserlough will certainly test them, but Loughgiel’s speed and skill set should see them pick up the first of what they hope will be two Ulster titles in the same weekend.

NWP Recycling Ulster Intermediate club final

Saturday October 20 at 3.15pm in Moy: Clonduff Shamrocks (Down) v Eglish (Tyrone)

A REPEAT of last year’s decider and a seventh successive final for four-in-a-row chasing Eglish, the NWP Ulster Intermediate final has a few sub plots running through it.

Eglish may have taken the last three titles, but they know all about losing finals as well, having lost to three different Down clubs in the deciders of 2012-14, the last after a replay with Clonduff.

They then had high-scoring final wins over Glen Maghera and Granemore before Clonduff re-emerged last season for a game that was only decided in the last few minutes of play.

There is a significant change in the Eglish line-out this year with top-scorer and free-taker Ciara Donnelly gone for the year to teach in Qatar.

Ciara fired over eight points from a 1-14 to 2-9 win in last year’s final, with younger sister Leanne bagging 1-2. Since Ciara’s departure at the end of August Leanne has emerged as the main score-getter for the east Tyrone side.

Other young players like Brenda Horsfield have emerged in recent years, but Eglish to a large extend rely on the experience of Ciara McGready and the Jordans, Cathy, Claire, Shauna and Aisling to contain teams and allow the Donnellys to mount an assault on the score-board.

Clonduff were well challenged on their way through the Down championship, particularly by a young Ballygalget side in the semi-final. The Shamrocks looked dead on their feet at half-time when they trailed by six points – but Ballygalget didn’t, or couldn’t, push on.

A good bit of credit for that has to go to the Clonduff defence in which Jenna Boden and Fionnuala Carr have been very solid.

But the key player has been captain Paula O’Hagan, whether she lines out at midfield or at half-forward dropping back as a third midfielder.

She is the main scorer for the team and her semi-final goal and then six points in the final turned both games in favour of her team.

Sara Louise Carr is also a scoring threat and perhaps the Down champions have that little bit more than the Tyrone side in this department.

Both teams know what this level of competition is about and both will work extremely hard to get over the line.

It may well be a more defensive type game than last year, but in O’Hagan and the younger Carr, Clonduff should clock up enough scores to take a second title and keep them in training over the winter for the All-Ireland series.