AIB Ulster Senior Camogie Club Championship Final
AMY Boyle does her talking on the pitch. Whether as a dynamic midfielder pushing forward or as the one-on-one marker in saffron or red, Boyle puts her heart and soul into every game and it has paid off with success over the years.
An All-Ireland Féile na nGael winner with Loughgiel back when Féile came to Ulster in 2014, her age group followed through to eclipse every title in the county. Same with Antrim at underage level as well, her accolades including back-to-back All-Ireland minor titles.
More recently she has experienced success with Antrim at senior level, while at club level she has collected a county medal every year since she joined the senior team as a 16 year old.
However, in each of the six Ulster club finals that followed, Slaughtneil have beaten the Shamrocks. Boyle is hoping her lucky number is seven.
“There have been some of those finals where we weren’t good enough on the day. There were others where we didn’t have the luck,” claims the Queen’s Maths student.
“Slaughtneil are difficult to break down. You saw that against Swatragh in their county final. They were being outplayed during the second half and they were still able to stay ahead and then strike hard at the end. You get a real test every time you play against Slaughtneil.”
Because they are more than likely to be facing each other in the championship at the tail end of each season, they only ever meet each other when something is at stake.
“Yeah, I suppose that is true,” says Boyle. “Each of us have to travel a distance at this time of year to get a good challenge match where we can look at things we want to try out. Yet we are only about 20 miles apart. We even have to travel to Páirc Esler to play this final – a fair distance for each of us.
“We played them in Páirc Esler a few years ago as the first game in a double-header with the Ulster club hurling final and there was a big crowd there. But there has been a big crowd at most of our stand-alone finals as well.
“The first year I came on to the panel, the hurling and football finals were a double-header in Armagh. We had to replay the camogie and there was just as many turned up in Glen for the replay. Huge numbers.”
Mention Glen and Amy’s mind wanders back to another replayed final at the Maghera venue around this time last year.
“Playing at this time of year, the pitches can be so different. In the drawn match in Ballymena last November the ball ran fast on the pitch. For the replay, Glen was so heavy, you were almost sinking into the ground with each step.
“We didn’t have lights in Loughgiel until this year and it is so different. In the past we would have been moving around clubs that would give us their lights. I suppose you experience different surfaces when you move around, but it is very handy too training at home.”
Loughgiel are much changed since last year with three or four players on maternity leave, but Boyle feels that the players that have come in, plus the new management team, has brought a fresh approach.
“Those players who are out I would have looked up to them as leaders in the team, experienced players at club and county level. I am six, seven years in the team now and I would still regard them as the leaders.
“But we have had a serious squad of players in our Division Two team and they are winning at the level nearly every year. Those players have got their chance now and they have taken it.
“The new management has also brought new ideas and I would say that we are different in a lot of ways to the teams that have faced Slaughtneil in the past.
“Over my years in the team we have always felt going into the final that we would win it. We would have felt that we had got the match-ups right and had momentum. Sometimes we still weren’t good enough on the day. On other days we were good enough, but didn’t get the result.
“Hopefully on Saturday we are good enough and this time we get over the line.”
