Hurling & Camogie

Antrim ladies' football captain Saoirse Tennyson: there is much more to come from this team

Antrim's Saoirse Tennyson (left) and Joanne Doonan of Fermanagh at the launch of the Lidl Ladies National Football League finals media day at Poolbeg Beach in Dublin
Antrim's Saoirse Tennyson (left) and Joanne Doonan of Fermanagh at the launch of the Lidl Ladies National Football League finals media day at Poolbeg Beach in Dublin Antrim's Saoirse Tennyson (left) and Joanne Doonan of Fermanagh at the launch of the Lidl Ladies National Football League finals media day at Poolbeg Beach in Dublin

Antrim ladies' footballers are reflecting on achieving just their third Ulster title after they defeated favourites Fermanagh in an exciting TG4 Ulster Junior Championship final last Sunday.

Victory for the Saffrons, while it was not beyond them, looked uncertain as they trailed their opponents by five points at half-time, 2-6 to 0-7, a goal at either end of the half doing the damage.

Fermanagh had already beaten Antrim in their previous three meetings including the Division Four final as well as a 10-point defeat in the first provincial semi-final two weeks earlier.

But whatever manager Sean O’Kane said in the changing room at half-time worked, and as captain Saoirse Tennyson, said afterwards, it took some words from the Glenelly man to kickstart the comeback.

They were patient, plugging away at that five point lead, and with just 14 minutes remaining, they had wiped it out leaving the final quarter all to play for. Fermanagh did not turn poor in the second half but they came up against a resolute defence. Antrim matched them score for score after drawing level before Cathy Carey, not for the first time this year, put Antrim ahead for the first time with just over two minutes left before adding a free in complete the remarkable turnaround.

“We were six or seven points down and our heads were a bit down so to come back and put in a performance like that is incredible,” said the Saffrons’ 22-year-old captain.

“I think it took us a bit to get started and it took Sean to raise his voice at us to waken up and we came back out to play our normal game, through the hands, through the hands and get the ball in early and thankfully it came good at the end.

“They had beaten us the past three times so to come back and beat them is an incredible feeling with so many emotions.”

With that duck finally off their backs, Tennyson believes there is more to come from this young Antrim side. A lot of them are just beginning to find their feet playing in a senior inter-county level set-up and she hopes as the summer goes on they will really start to show their worth.

“We will go back and start prepping again for the All-Ireland. I believe there is the potential in our team and the girls need to have a bit more belief in themselves. They are younger so they are coming through and slowly but surely building their confidence so I think the belief will come with it.”

After that magnificent victory and knowing what his side can do, O’Kane is hoping they can become more consistent as they prepare for Derry in the first group game of the All-Ireland junior series next weekend.

"I just said to them at half-time to leave everything they had on the field. It was the simple things, the basics that we were not doing right and I just pointed that out to them. I knew I could get a reaction from them.

"We could have been further down after the break when the ball came back off the post but they got a point from it. It was a rollercoaster of a game. We were down players through injury but everyone put in a real workhorse performance. Fermanagh still had their chances but we just kept at it and kept at it.

"The mindset is changing in this team and it was a big win and everyone was back at training on Tuesday night and focussing on the All-Ireland. We now want to turn in a bit of consistency. We produced the performance we were looking for in the second half but we want to do that every game. The nucleus is there, there is a great buzz about the county and we want to build on that."

DOWN are the only Ulster county plying their trade in the All-Ireland Intermediate and this will be their first competitive piece of action since their last league game in April.

Fourteen teams will compete for the Mary Quinn Memorial Cup won by Tyrone in 2018. Last year’s beaten finalists Meath are one of the favourites to go a step further this year but so are Tipperary, who won intermediate honours in 2017 but were relegated straight back to the middle tier after just one season in senior.

Unfortunately for both sides they have not managed to avoid one another until the knockout stages and they meet in round one of the group stages. Wicklow, who reached the quarter-finals last year and Longford, who avoided relegation by beating Fermanagh in the play-off final last saeason, are also in with them.

There are two groups of four and two groups of three. Down are in Group one along with Sligo who reached the semis last year, Limerick who have come up from junior after winning that All-Ireland last year and Kildare.

As with the senior, the winners and runners-up of the four groups will qualify for the quarter-finals. Unlike the senior, two counties potentially could be relegated to junior grade for 2020, except if one of those counties is a provincial champion. A provincial winner who finds themselves in finishing bottom of their group will be exempt from the relegation battle while the other must enter relegation play-offs in their battle for survival.

JUST six counties will compete for All-Ireland junior honours and three of those are Ulster – newly crowned champions Antrim, Fermanagh and Derry.

This trio have all played one another at least twice already this year. Antrim and Fermanagh have played four times and with the way the draw has unfolded, the three counties are in the one group and will play each other again.

Originally, Fermanagh and Antrim were in the same group but with Kilkenny’s withdrawal from the championship, which left four teams in one group and just two in the other, it was redrawn and Ulster’s three participants were pitted together.

Louth were beaten finalists last year, losing out to Limerick in the final. Fermanagh would have started as one of the favourites but after their defeat to Antrim in the Ulster final last weekend, the Saffrons are one to watch as well.

Five of the six counties, with the exception of London, are all Division Four teams, so they have all come up against each other leaving the All-Ireland junior championship a very open competition.

The two group winners and runners-up will go straight through to the semi-finals.