'These are phenomenal times for Cavan camogie'

Camogie reaction

Kevin Egan

Jimmy Greville’s disappointment in losing to Roscommon a week previously was wiped away by a wonderful performance from his minor camógs last Saturday afternoon, when they edged out Mayo in a tense and tight All-Ireland decider at Markievicz Park in Sligo.

Even allowing for the spate of significant injuries that decimated his squad in advance of the clash with Roscommon, no-one could have imagined the Rossies turning around an 18-point defeat from the National League semi-final. That’s what happened however – but thankfully on Saturday, the turnaround came from Cavan, as they overcame losing the first quarter by 0-4 to 0-1 to outscore their opponents by two clear goals for the remainder of the game.

“It was a tough week,” admitted Greville in the aftermath of Saturday’s game.

“After last Sunday we were back on Sunday evening with the minors, but it’s all about the future and the future of Cavan camogie was out on the field there today.

“We knew coming in here that Mayo had three top class forwards, and we had to stop them. If we did that, we were half way there. Fionnuala McLaughlin caused us a lot of problems in the first quarter but that addressed that issue, and then at the water break the girls realized that they had to wake up now, and thankfully they did."

Defensive solidity was key for the group, with U-16 player Alannah Clarke in goal and full-back Emma Mulvaney, who won the Player of the Match accolade, singled out for praise by the former Westmeath player.

“In camogie, sometimes you’d be cringing with a high ball coming in, but today with Emma there, we knew that we were safe. When you have that trust in your full back and goalkeeping axis, you have something that you can build on”.

Looking further ahead, Greville says that when these players are added to the existing junior panel, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Cavan’s upward march can continue.

“There’s a few of those players out there that would have been well able to come into the junior set up this year but they couldn’t with other commitments, whether that was the Leaving Cert or whatever else. The last two years have been unbelievable for me to be involved, reaching a Premier Junior final, winning the Nancy Murray, Ulster minor champions and now All-Ireland champions. It’s been a phenomenal period for Cavan camogie, and there is definitely more medals there to be won.

“The best part of it is that it’s not just one, two or three clubs as it is in some other counties, there’s so much work going on in lots of clubs around the county, and any of those girls out there would walk onto any of the teams in the senior championship in Cavan and that’s great.

“Of course it’s always going to play second fiddle to the big ball in Cavan and that’s just the way it is. If they get more backing from the LGFA and work together instead of working against each other, they’ll come on even further, but if the two organisations don’t work together we’re at nothing,” he warned, before restoring the positive tone for his summary.

“That win will drive on the juniors, the U-16’s, the U-14’s. Other teams will realise now that this is there for them, success like this can happen in Cavan."