‘The momentum has to be kept going’

Monaghan 1-14

Mayo 2-10

Monaghan’s senior camogie joint-manager Darragh Madden and Freddie Williams were singing off the same hymn sheet after watching their team win the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Junior Camogie Championship Final against Mayo on Saturday.

Speaking to Killian Whelan on the Camogie Association’s live stream, Madden said: “I’m delighted for them; the effort they’ve put in over the year has been unbelievable. It’s all worth it for this. It doesn’t last long but it is worth it.

“A lot of players came on [over the season]. Two or three started who hadn’t started the league final because they improved so much. We pushed them hard in training. I’d say there were some nights they left training not liking us a whole pile, but we pushed the standards to get better.

“Mayo beat us by ten points in the league final, so that’s a huge turnaround. The belief and the effort they put in has been rewarded. They bought into it and I knew we were going to give a performance. I knew we were up against it as they’re a very good team, but I knew it in my heart that it was going to be a tight game.”

Freddie Williams reflected: “Getting to the league final stood us in good stead. We learned a lot from it. That was still early doors for us; we had only been together eight weeks. Since then, we got three months of great work done. We had good challenges and the round-robin heading into the All-Ireland. We added players to the panel and it just gathered momentum. We knew coming down here that it was going to be fierce tough and we were going to have to be ready to battle. We knew we could do damage on the scoreboard and we did that. I’m absolutely over the moon for the players. They really deserve it; they’re a great bunch.

“We started very well, which settled us. We had targeted a good start. Mayo came back at us. We played them in Castlebar a few weeks ago and we were on top in the first half and went in six points up. They came back with a storm at us in the second half. We said at half-time to expect them to throw everything at us and they did. My heart was in my mouth with five minutes left, but they just dug in and showed their character to get over the line.”

Within minutes of the final whistle in Longford, Madden was already looking ahead to next season, saying: “They have to keep it going now. We’re going to come back next year and hope we can push it on again. This should be a big lift for Monaghan camogie. It was just hanging on in areas, but this should give it the lift it needed. Young ones were there watching and they can now aspire to being on the senior team and pushing for honours. A lot of people would have said at the start of the year that Mayo were going to walk this championship and that Monaghan would struggle to win a game. We saw in the league that they were strong, but we knew as the year went on that we had the players and the belief. They kept pushing and we showed what hard work can do. There was a few young ones on there who are 17 and played brilliant. That’s the talent that’s in the county, so that needs to be harnessed and the momentum has to be kept going.”