Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division Three final: Wexford v Cavan (Sunday, Kinnegad, 3pm)
CAVAN’S upward trajectory continues.
The county only came back into adult camogie in 2020 and made an immediate impact to win the Nancy Murray Cup. Because counties could only enter one team in the championship that season they were catapulted into the junior championship to make up numbers and promptly beat Roscommon to reach the final against Armagh.
However, despite a promising first quarter, they struggled with the scoring ability of Armagh’s Donnelly sisters and lost the decider by a few points.
Last year the won Division Four fairly comfortably, but surprisingly lost to Roscommon in the junior championship and that left them with too much to do to reach the final.
A change of management came in this season and there seems to have been an immediate kick on which really gathered pace after a single-point victory over Armagh in the opening league game.
That was followed by four more wins, some again by very narrow margins, and they are back in the final.
However, their opponents Wexford have been the best team at this level last year and this. The Leinster side are unbeaten during that period, collecting the league and Junior All-Ireland on the way.
So, why have they not been promoted to a higher division? The answer lies with the county’s senior squad who didn’t win promotion last year back into Division One, even though they continue to play in the senior championship. This team has to remain in the lower division until Wexford seniors move up and that will stunt the progress of teams like Cavan.
The Breffni side will be big underdogs going into the final, but they have shown a good appetite for battling through tight games this year. The key question will be whether they can keep the game in the balance until the last quarter.
I fear they won’t be able to do that and avoiding a heavy defeat might be a good result for a team that has come a long way in a short time.