Hurling & Camogie

Down, Antrim and Cavan camogs bid for All-Ireland final berths

Lauren Clarke of Down challenges Derry Ceat McEldowney for possession during the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship match at Slaughtneil on Saturday October 24 2020. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Lauren Clarke of Down challenges Derry Ceat McEldowney for possession during the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship match at Slaughtneil on Saturday October 24 2020. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Lauren Clarke of Down challenges Derry Ceat McEldowney for possession during the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship match at Slaughtneil on Saturday October 24 2020. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final: Saturday November 21 at 1.30pm in Clones: Down v Meath

THE opening game of the Intermediate championship looked to be one fraught with danger for Down. The form team in Ulster over the past couple of seasons had found Derry a problem and drawn the last two championship encounters with them.

Now they had to travel to Slaughtneil and face what looked like the strongest Derry side in recent times.

Down won by double scores, 1-15 to 0-9, and looked very impressive in their general play, apart from the odd gap appearing in the middle of their defence during the first half. Those gaps almost led to goals.

The return of the experienced Fionnuala Carr for the Laois game seemed to sort that issue out and they looked like a team that could go all the way in the competition.

They are a physically strong team and as pitches get heavier that physicality will be more useful.

Meath are also a big physical team, although that physicality over-stepped the mark against Antrim a fortnight ago and ultimately cost them the match.

The Royals had started well against Antrim but then conceded a number of frees that Nicole O’Neill pointed and Antrim worked their way back into the game.

Antrim’s accuracy was a telling factor, while Meath wasted several goal chances, including a penalty that Jane Dolan blasted wide. She pointed another penalty at a crucial point in Sunday’s quarter-final against Derry, but the Oak Leaf girls were unable to take advantage.

There is a lot of pace in the Meath attack with Dolan, Amy Gaffney and Sinéad Hackett all capable of a lot of damage while Aoife Minogue can come through from midfield to hit key scores.

Claire Coffey has been very impressive at full-back, a player that likes to attack the ball at all times and her tussle with Lauren Clarke could be very interesting as the new Down full-forward tends to pull her marker away from the edge of the square.

Although Niamh Mallon and Sara Louise Carr accounted for 2-8 from 2-13 against Laois in the last round, Sorcha McCartan and Aimee McAleenan are a scoring threat as well and the team has a good work-rate.

Both teams are strong contenders for this competition and the winner will probably be touted as favourites for the final. So there is plenty at stake here and it may come down to the side that makes the least mistakes.

Verdict: Down by a very thin margin

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final: Saturday November 21 at 3.15pm in Inniskeen: Antrim v Laois

THE only surprise around Sunday’s quarter-final results was that Laois were lucky to take their tie with Kerry to extra time, requiring a very late equaliser to make it 1-5 each after trailing for 60 minutes.

The conditions contributed to a low-scoring game, but the more experienced Laois side was expected to have little bother, particularly a week after giving Down plenty of bother in Round Two of the qualifiers.

Having said that, the Midlanders only real scoring threat came from teenage full-forward Kirsten Keenan and experienced midfielder Jessie Quinlan. However they are compact at the back.

Antrim had a stern test a fortnight ago when they overcame a hesitant start to beat Meath by 1-16 to 2-9 in Inniskeen. That was a much improved performance to their Round One win over Carlow at the same venue, but the management team of Paul McKillen, Jim McKernan and Elaine Dowds will believe that there is more to come from the Saffrons.

Their defence looked a bit open in the closing minutes of the Carlow game and then again in the opening ten minutes of the Meath game. For the rest of those games that defence looked pretty much in control with the experienced trio of Chloe Drain, Niamh Donnelly and Maeve Connolly guiding the ship.

The Saffron midfield has changed during the course of each game; last day saw Roisin McCormick face the throw in before moving to a more recognisable striking role. The accurate Nicole O’Neill has also dropped back to the area during the second half of games.

When both are up front with the likes of Maeve Kelly and Caitrin Dobbin around them, there looks to be a serious scoring threat from the Saffrons and that is illustrated in the fact that they have scored 6-26 in their two championship games to date.

By contrast Laois don’t look like a team that can run up a high score.

Verdict: Antrim

All-Ireland Premier Junior semi-finals:

Saturday November 21: 1.30pm in Athleague: Cavan v Roscommon and 2.30pm in Crossmaglen: Armagh v Tyrone

ARMAGH’S emphatic victory over Roscommon in the opening round of the Premier Junior championship was an example of a team growing in confidence as the game progressed.

Although they dominated early exchanges they could not convert that into scores. Once they managed to get enough scores to put Roscommon out of the picture, their team-work and movement off the ball improved significantly.

If they can maintain that momentum Tyrone will struggle against them.

The Red Hands did reasonably well under pressure against Cavan last weekend, but they had problems creating scoring opportunities and it is difficult to see how they will curtail the scoring threat of Rachel Merry and the Donnelly sisters, who incidentally play their club camogie with Eglish.

I am predicting an all-Ulster final with Roscommon going down in Athleague to an emerging Cavan, who at the weekend won their first inter-county competition, the Nancy Murray Cup.

The Rossies might be at home but they looked seriously out of sorts three weeks ago against Armagh and it will take a huge change of their mind-set for them to reach the final. There is also the league game away back in February when Cavan really upset the form book with a comfortable win.

The Breffni girls have come through very strong in 2020. Although they are over a decade out of inter-county camogie, there is both talent and experience in their lineout.

They were not seriously challenged in the Nancy Murray Cup which they won on Saturday evening in Inniskeen and I would say that Jimmy Greville and his team will relish the challenge of playing at a higher grade.

I think they have enough forward power to make it an all-Ulster final

Verdict: Armagh and Cavan

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final: Saturday November 21 1.30pm in Clones: Down v Meath

DOWN have scored three goals in the two victories that qualified them for this weekend’s Liberty Insurance Intermediate championship semi-final. Niamh Mallon picked off two and Sara Louise Graffin hit the other. The team-mate delivering the final pass for all three was Lauren Clarke.

“Lauren is the most unselfish player on our team,” proclaimed Mallon in the minutes after the match.

But Lauren Clarke never expected to get a starting jersey in the Down team when she committed to county training at the start of January.

“That is true. This time last year, Down were entering a Second team in Division Three of the league and the All-Ireland Junior championship. I was committing myself to that team,” said An Ríocht club player Clarke

“I had joined the senior squad three or four years ago in my last year of minors and hadn’t got any game time. I understood the situation and didn’t expect anything. I was very young and had no experience.

“The next year I was going to uni and there was a lot happening. So I didn’t think I had the time to commit to working my way into the team,” admitted the final year student of Sports Studies in UUJ.

Since then Down has crept up the rankings and claimed back-to-back Ulster titles.

“Then this year, with the second team, I was thinking that I could realistically get game time there and see where that took me.”

Lauren did well in the two Division Three league games before the lockdown and COVID 19 failed to derail the forward’s upward trajectory. She was the star of An Ríocht’s league and championship programme over the summer months and seemed to catch the eye of Down manager Derek Dunne when county training resumed in September.

“He phoned me one night and told me that I was in his plans for the senior team. That was good to hear, but I was thinking to myself that plenty of managers say that to players on the subs’ bench to keep them interested.

“But he put me on in a challenge game we had against Galway and, after the seconds’ team won the Ulster Intermediate title, he told me that I would start against Derry in the championship.

“The senior girls have been great and the more match time I have got the more confident I am getting among them. I am not afraid of taking on scoring chances myself, but when you have the likes of Niamh and Sara Louise making the runs, there are often better options there for me.”

Camogie has been a welcome distraction for Clarke who admits to missing student life around Belfast.

“You miss the buzz around uni. It feels very strange not attending classes, working from home and missing the interaction with others.

“Last year was a good one from the camogie point of view as well. CJ McGourty was taking us in UUJ and we qualified for the Ashbourne weekend for the first time in the three years I was there. As a player I was getting more confident.

“I have a part-time job as a Care Assistant in a local Nursing Home. We have been coping quite well with the COVID situation but you have to be very careful.

“I think you now appreciate more the chance to get out to play camogie.”

Of course Down’s unbeaten run has helped to make it an enjoyable experience for the new county full-forward.

“We work hard at training and that has come out in the games. I hear Meath will be a step up from what we have played so far. They were a senior team last year.

“I am looking forward to what Derek has to say about them at training and then we will see what we can do on Saturday.”

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