AIB All-Ireland Junior Championship
“WHAT a game! What a result!
“You could just feel from the first five minutes that it was going to be played at the intensity of an inter-county championship match.”
These are the thoughts of Brídíní Óga Glenravel coach and former Ballygalget and Down hurler Martin Coulter when he looks back on the north Antrim club’s 1-10 to 1-9 win over Limerick champions Adare in the AIB All-Ireland Junior semi-final in Abbottstown on Sunday.
It was only the second time that an Ulster team has reached the final of the competition. Eoghan Rua from Coleraine were the first earlier this year and the Derry champions went on to win the title.
“Look, anything is possible after that performance,” claimed Coulter who this year was in charge of the Derry county side that contained some of the Eoghan Rua All-Ireland medallists.
“It was full of honesty, endeavour, determination and we probably got close to each player producing their best individual performance in a great team effort. Make no mistake about it, that all was needed. Adare are a fine side.
“We probably got the breaks on Sunday. We had two shots that hit the post today and dropped over the bar. They also hit the post and it came back into play. Fine margins.
“Their centre back and centre forward were exceptional players. Yet the players who were marking each had exceptional games as well. Sarah Fyfe scored four points from play and set up our winning point and Laoise (McKenna) was just Laoise, superb.”
Coulter was also high in his praise of goal-keeper Orla Donnelly who brought off a superb full length diving save just before half time.
“Just unreal. The lift that gave us going in at half-time was unbelievable. She and the sub-goalie Caitlin McKeown have been working with Seanan McToal from Glenariffe for a couple of months now and they have really improved in all aspects of their game.
“They are a lot more confident under the dropping ball, their positional sense has improved and also their poc-outs. But the whole team has improved massively.
“When you go on a campaign like this and it becomes your sole focus, you start to play a lot better individually and collectively, your confidence rises.
“We are a totally different team now than the one that got past Creggan in the first round of Antrim. We had a couple of games in Antrim that we could have lost, but the opposition just couldn’t put us away.
“The An Ríocht game (Ulster semi-final) flagged up a few gaps in our game that we needed to look at, our physicality, our team play, positional awareness. The final was supposed to be the following week, but then was postponed and we got an extra three weeks to work on things.
“It has been a long season for the girls, with football, county, schools. But they are really enjoying this run we are on. They have had a lot of success, winning both the Intermediate football and camogie titles, the first club in Antrim to do that.
“Are there things to improve? Of course there are. We butchered a few chances in the game, we mishit shots under pressure. We can work on a few things, but it was our best performance in a long time.”
Yesterday the Camogie Association confirmed that the AIB All-Ireland Junior final will take place on Saturday, January 7 at 2pm in Kinnegad. Glenravel’s opponents are Knockananna from Wicklow.
