Down camogie girls one step away from an All-Ireland title

31 July 2024

DOWN camogie hasn’t enjoyed much success at under-age level in recent years, but that could all change at Abbottstown on Sunday afternoon.

That’s where the county’s U-16 famous face they face Carlow in the All-Ireland U-16 B Championship final.

It’s the same Carlow side that defeated Down by 3-9 to 1-8 in a group game in Liatroim at the end of June.

Paul O’Shea, who manages the team with Andrew McGivern, describes that group tie as a watershed moment.

“I think we were caught cold in that game,” claims the Wicklow native.

“Carlow played in the Leinster A competition during the late spring and that obviously had a knock0on effect when this All-Ireland B championship was starting up, although they just managed to scrape past Roscommon in the opening game.

“We beat Roscommon fairly comfortably and then the same against Westmeath. Those games were before the exam break.

“Then we played Carlow in Liatroim to see who would top the table and I think we maybe thought we had the better score difference against the other two teams and that would mean that all we had to do was show up.

“It didn’t work out that way at all and they deserved to win,” says O’Shea, who has taken the team over the past two seasons and overseen a gradual improvement.

“However I am very pleased with how we dealt with the semi-final a couple of weeks later. We asked the girls for an improvement against Laois and we had a great start – three goals inside eight minutes.

“Laois of course hit back and there were periods during that game where we were struggling a bit. But we managed to hit good patches and get the result.”

In the end Down prevailed by 4-10 to 3-6 against Laois, who had topped Group 2.

That was a fortnight ago, but the management could have done with another week before the final as they have a number of players recovering from injury.

“It’s a difficult one,” says co-manager Andrew McGivern.

“On the one hand the semi-final restored a bit of confidence and you obviously want to carry the momentum into the final. But you wouldn’t want to be facing Carlow without your best team.

“Hopefully the injury list improves in the days before the match and we can give of our best.”

Many of the team featured in Assumption Grammar School’s great run in schools’ competitions last season that culminated in a losing an All-Ireland final to a Limerick school by a single point back in March.

“Those girls gained a lot of experience with Assumption,” says O’Shea.

“But they also brought to the Down team the hurt they felt from losing an All-Ireland final by a point. They’re back in an All-Ireland just a few months later and they have another chance to see what it feels like to win a final.”

With the teams having met in Liatroim, the Down management has been able to assess Carlow’s strengths.

The Leinster team also played their semi-final – a 2-11 to 0-5 win over Kildare – on an adjoining pitch at Abbottstown while Down were facing Laois.

“Their semi-final started half an hour before ours, so we didn’t see any of it,” says McGivern. “They had the chance to watch most of the second half of our game though.

“I thought Kate Burke and Rachel Kennedy were good for them up front and we will certainly need to cut down on their influence. Midfield was fairly useful and Ailbhe Steger and Sarah Murphy are good defenders.

“We need to play as well as we played when we were on top in the Laois game. Those periods saw us at our best all season. But there were periods too, when Laois dominated. We need to be more consistent as a team. If we manage to get both those things right on Sunday, we can avenge the Liatroim result.”

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