Armagh aiming for glory in fifth junior camogie final in 10 years
captain Ciara Hill says that despite considerable change since their last All-Ireland junior
camogie
triumph, her side are ready for Sunday's final against
Laois
.
Their last victory came in 2020 and was followed by final defeats in 2021 and '22, with Hill unable to play in their most recent decider due to injury.
Adding in their loss in the 2016 edition, Armagh are heading into their fifth final in a decade, but this time they come into the decider with confidence after a 12-point win over Roscommon.
'I think from the 2020 team it's quite different now. We lost a few of the older girls but there's a lot of new girls in. It kind of sparks the camp and puts everyone through their paces, so I think it's a different team, but it's strong.'
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'It was great to get a win going into the final, it does give you that bit of confidence. But we know every match is a different game and we know that Laois is going to be a really tough opponent, so (we'll) just try and focus on the finals.'
When Armagh won their first junior title in 27 years they did so in a near-empty Breffni Park due to restrictions during the pandemic. 'I suppose that was in the height of Covid, so that didn't really feel like an All-Ireland final at that time', admits Hill.
It will be a different story this time out against Laois in Croke Park though, as Camogie Association president
Brian Molloy has made clear his intention that the attendance record will be broken
at this year's triple header.
Molloy said he hopes there will be 'over 40,000' spectators at Croke Park on Sunday, saving his ultimate goal of filling the stadium for future finals.
Hill is confident Armagh fans will mobilise to support their team: 'I think all week now there's been a great buzz in Armagh, in terms of organising buses for the underage girls to come up and support. I know they've been selling flags and headscarves and everything too. It would be lovely to look up into the stand and see a lot of orange and white there.
'They did it last summer now for the boys, so hopefully they'll match it this weekend and come out in full force,' she says.
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Irish Examiner
12 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Live: Follow the action from the All-Ireland Camogie final between Cork v Galway
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Galway won't stand on her toes tomorrow, but they have to ensure, through their decision-making and shot selection, that they bypass rather than bring her into the action. Hopeful, route one carry-on will only make her a triumph. Work the flanks and corners. In last year's final, she collected 10 Galway deliveries/miscued passes/point attempts that went short. After Galway attacks were turned over, hers was the first pass for two of Cork's three winning points in the closing stretch. If Galway go down the central channel, then they have to be clever and clinical with possession. Anything loose will be latched upon and relaunched by Laura. Eoghan Cormican 1.18pm: All-Ireland senior camogie final player-by-player guide: Galway take on defending champions Cork on Sunday at HQ. Read full article here. 1.09pm: TEAM NEWS: Cork have named an unchanged team to take on Galway in Sunday's All-Ireland senior camogie final. Ger Manley is sticking with the same 15 that overcame Waterford by 10 points in the semi-final. This means Katrina Mackey retains her position instead of Clodagh Finn, who was unable to start against the Déise due to a knee injury. Finn has recovered to take her place on the bench. The manager has also opted to keep Orlaith Mullins in reserve after the Sarsfields' attacker scored 1-2 upon her introduction in the penultimate round three minutes from the end of regulation. Therese O'Callaghan The Galway team is unchanged for Sunday's All-Ireland camogie final. Manager Cathal Murray, as expected, has opted to stick with the same 15 that scored a 1-18 to 1-11 semi-final win over Tipperary two weeks ago. The Galway line-up contains 11 of the team that began last year's 1-16 to 0-16 final defeat. The corner-forward pair of Mairead Dillon and Caoimhe Kelly are making their senior final debuts this weekend having been unused subs 12 months ago. 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Extra.ie
12 minutes ago
- Extra.ie
David Clifford back in action with man of the match performance
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Irish Daily Mirror
12 minutes ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Kerry camogie star on 'unbelievable' development of game in county
Given the rapid-fire nature of most matches in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Championships, with group games taking place on back-to-back weekends before the knockout stages, a month-long gap between the intermediate competition's semi-final and Sunday's final, featuring Kerry and Offaly (3pm, live on RTÉ2), must feel like an age. Jackie Horgan has witnessed just about everything during her time with Kerry camogie, a journey so extraordinary it would make even a Hollywood scriptwriter blush if they'd concocted such an implausible tale. Year upon year, despite only having a small pool of players from a relatively minor hurling region in a county that has just clinched its 39th All-Ireland senior football title, the camogie team has consistently raised the bar. Both Clanmaurice and the Kingdom have achieved unlikely victories and amassed a collection of All-Ireland medals along the way. Though only 27, Horgan is a veteran of this odyssey and there aren't many challenges she and her cohorts haven't encountered. Heck, Clanmaurice, until very recently the only adult club in the county, had to play an All-Ireland semi-final with 14 players just four years ago. They won. That was in junior but they will ply their trade at senior level later this year, after supplementing their two successes in the third tier with a second straight intermediate triumph last December. Now, in the green and gold, they are an hour away from the same exalted status, having won the junior in 2019. But even for such experienced operators, managing the time since the thrilling semi-final defeat of Down has not been easy. "Four weeks is a long gap," admits Horgan. "It's more the mind than the body. You can train away but it's trying not to think about it too much until the days before the game. But there's nowhere else you want to be coming into August like, so we'll manage it." The development of camogie in the south-west corner of this island has been staggering. "Years ago, when I first started playing, and when we left minor, Clanmaurice was the only option. There was nothing in the county really. There was underage, but that was it really. The work that has been done over the past few years is unbelievable. This year even, there's a club after being set up below in Kenmare. "And obviously the success feeds into all that. I'm actually teaching in Causeway, which would be a natural camogie and hurling area, and the numbers playing down there is huge. When I was in school, there was none of that. "In the hurling side of things it is getting bigger. You have Parnells, Crokes and Kenmare/Kilgarvan – they're spread around the county more. Camogie-wise, it was always North Kerry but again, we have clubs coming from the other side of Killarney playing camogie. With Clanmaurice, you've Danielle O'Leary from Rathmore, so it is slowly but surely getting around the county." Crotta was Horgan's local hurling club growing up but in her formative years, it was the big ball that was her focus. "We're at the Listowel side of North Kerry so we'd be all football. I actually didn't start playing camogie with a club until I was 15. Jerome O'Sullivan used to come at primary school so I used to play a bit there but I joined (underage club) Cillard when I was 15 or 16, and I probably am more camogie than football now." Little would you have imagined then that she would become such a scoring threat for club and county, at Croke Park and a host of other venues around the land, proving an adept freetaker too in support of the legendary Patrice Diggin, who she shares captaincy duties with this season. Certainly, as she scored a stunning goal within two minutes of Diggin planting a penalty to help Kerry establish the vital breathing space that enabled them to eke out a four-point triumph over Down, you would have presumed a hurley was thrust in her hand in the pram. That wasn't the case but Horgan is clearly a quick learner. "I remember coming home from my first training session and thinking, 'Ohhhh.' I loved it but I was thinking, 'Am I mad?' The following year, myself and Aoife Behan broke into the senior and we played a (Nancy Murray Cup) final against Carlow in Templetouhy and we got annihilated, and I remember thinking maybe I should stick to football but as time went on, we couldn't even think about the success we've had since." The core of the group from a decade ago remains, winning the old Division 4, 3 and 2 titles in the National League as well as the aforementioned All-Irelands. But thanks to this success, there is a depth to the squad that never existed before. "We were just very lucky with the group we got, that they stuck it out. To keep the bulk of that team - I actually, I went through it. I think nine of the starting 15 from that 2015 (final) are still playing, which really does drive it on. "The younger girls don't probably realise where we were, once upon a time. We really were the bottom of the barrel. When you've been there the whole way through, it is special. " I suppose the difference with where we were now and ten years ago, if we scored ten points in the game, Patrice probably scored the ten, whereas the past few years, your six forwards might score in the game. "Last year, Ruth (O'Connor), Róisín (Quinn) and Shannon (Collins) broke into the team. They had done a bit of training the year before when they weren't up to the age group, which was obviously a huge benefit to them. The three of them girls started the semi-final and they had only just done the Leaving Cert. They have been a massive plus. "For a few years there, you know, we just didn't have the numbers. There was nothing you could do about it. I suppose there was a bit more comfort and not as much pressure on you whereas now, in training, there's five or six girls there on the fringes, and they're pushing it. To have three girls starting in their first year senior is huge. "So that's a major difference, the girls coming through." This is a significant accomplishment, ever before a game is played but the big picture is one thing. You're in a final, you want to win it. Particularly, when the carrot is a crack at the Corks and Galways of this world. Offaly represent stern opposition. They took out Antrim in the other semi-final, meaning the finalists had beaten the two teams relegated from senior to secure their positions in Sunday's Croke Park carnival. "They're a super team. I suppose, if you were to take one team out at the start of the year of who would get a chance to get into a final, Offaly would probably be your first pick. We played them up in Birr in February in the first round of the league and they were even going well then. "But we're there. And the past couple of weekends the way the games have gone, no-one has been able to predict them so we'll give it our all and whatever happens on the day will happen. We're gone one step further than last year, so that was the aim. We'll see after that."
