TENDONITIS has held Lauren McKenna back from the Derry team over the past two years, but the Ballinascreen defender has certainly made her mark this season under new manager PJ O’Mullan, proving a model of consistency since the first league game.
“It certainly helps your confidence when you get to play week after week in the same position,’’ she says.
‘‘Camogie positions at intermediate level tend to stick a bit more to the way they are laid out on a team-sheet; at senior level a wing half-forward could pop up in defence one minute and corner-forward the next. But not at intermediate level and I have always enjoyed wing-half back.
“It helps when you are alongside someone like Aoife Ní Chaiside who is so in control and keeps everyone right.
“In fact the whole defence has been much the same all season and that has helped us gel together. The only change really has been losing Niamh McQuillan (the long-term goalkeeper) to injury a month ago, but luckily Niamh Gribben has come in and done a brilliant job. She saved a penalty against Carlow and things like that also give defenders a lot of confidence.”
McKenna has been troubled with tendonitis for the best part of six years. She dropped out of the county panel early in 2021, but was asked to come back at the start of last season by Martin Coulter.
“I decided at the time to rehab the knees for another while. When Derry got to the All-Ireland semi-final last July, I was definitely regretting that decision and vowed that I make a real go of it this year if I was asked back again.
“Like, I have never played in Croke Park and I think that is every player’s goal. It certainly is what I dream of anyway and the rest of the Derry girls who have never been there before would be motivated by the idea that they could get there this year.”
Derry have already qualified for the knock-out stages before they play Antrim this weekend in Cushendun. A win would put them top of the group. One of the three group winners will have to play in the quarter-finals, the other two get automatic semi-final spots.
“Ideally you would want Derry going straight into the semi-finals, one step away from Croke Park. But there are advantages to playing in the quarter-finals where you can get a tougher game before you meet one of the favourites for the All-Ireland.
“We know that there are going to be tough games down the line and ideally you would like to be pushed to the limit somewhere along the way and learn from it.
“We didn’t get a chance to play any of the big reserve teams – Kilkenny, Cork or Galway – in the league and we avoided them in the championship draw. Those are the teams that will give you a real test,” says McKenna, a radiographer working with the Belfast Trust.
“We learned so much from playing Antrim seniors in the Ulster semi-final. We got beaten by a point or two, but the game was invaluable to us.
“PJ told us to go out and give it a real go as we had nothing to lose. Defensively we managed to stop Antrim’s forwards from making the runs they are capable of and we put them on the back foot going forward.
“That built a lot of confidence in the team, I think and we have backed that performance up with two very strong games in the All-Ireland.”
Turning to the challenge immediately within Derry’s sights, McKenna wants them to continue where they left off against Wexford and Carlow.
“Playing Antrim’s reserve team is a potential banana skin for us. They are young and very pacey, but we are expected to win.
“I think their senior team underestimated us in the Ulster semi-final and we nearly beat them. We can’t afford to make the same mistake on Saturday. We need to play with the same intensity and ruthlessness as we have been doing lately and hopefully we get the result we want.”
