Swatragh’s winning manager Eamonn Hasson is in his first term in charge of his club’s camogie fortunes and the former inter-county hurling referee was quite emotional at the final whistle.
“The girls have been in finals before and they haven’t gone their way. Today we promised ourselves that it wouldn’t be left behind. We were going to work hard from the first ball to the last ball, for every ball even if it was a lost cause. And we got what we came for.”
Hasson pin-pointed the start they got as important. They scored the first three points inside three minutes.
“Slaughtneil is one of the best teams in Ireland. They have proven that time and again. There’s nobody has more respect for them than ourselves. Today we had to go out and not only match them, but better them.
“A good start was a great help and we managed to hold on to that lead right the way through. We were never behind.
“But there was a while in the second half there where we couldn’t get a chance. We went maybe 15 minutes of the second half and got just the one scoring chance and it went wide. Thankfully we made a couple of substitutions and we got a bit more energy and pushed on.”
While Hasson acknowledge that the work-rate of all 17 players used was key to the outcome, he heaped praise on his defence.
“The defence was immense and even at the end Shannon (Kearney, the full-forward) came back and made a key block. That just shows you the determination of the experienced players and the will to win.
“Niamh (McQuillan) has been through the wars over the last month, but she stood up there and may a great save from the penalty and made another couple of good saves, putting shots out for a 45. You can’t buy that sort of stuff. She’s one of the most experienced goalies in Ulster and we are glad to have her.
“We are back-boned by our experienced players, Niamh Quinn,Grainne (McAtamney), Máiréad (McNicholl) on frees, Dervla (O’Kane) in the middle. The movement from our forwards especially in the first half was unreal.
“The club has done a lot of work at under 16 level in recent years and it’s coming through now. Emma (Quinn) and Ellie (McCartney) had great games in their first year in the senior team. Eimear Conway came on as a sub, Mary Therese (McCullagh) off the bench too.”
Swatragh now move through to the Ulster final on November 16th where they will play the winners from the Clonduff v Loughgiel semi-final. Ulster however was not on the manager’s radar on Saturday evening.
“Coming up to today’s final, we talked about winning it, but very little about what comes afterwards. I think the girls deserve a celebration evening. They have been denied one for a while. And we’ll pick up training again during the week.”
“Slaughtneil is one of the best teams in Ireland. They have proven that time and again. There’s nobody has more respect for them than ourselves. Today we had to go out and not only match them, but better them
