O’Keeffe going to Croker to win

Kevin Óg Carney

The last time Róisín O’Keeffe faced Armagh in a camogie game, she buried the sliotar into the Orchard County net after just 38 seconds.

Ahead of this Sunday’s Kay Mills Cup final at Croke Park (12pm), the Lacken lady breaks out in a broad smile when reminded of Cavan’s nine point winning margin over Armagh in the second round of this year’s Premier Junior Camogie Championship.

Another similar result? Without a doubt. But would she take another performance like last June’s?

“Absolutely,” O’Keeffe jumps in. “We’d a great game that day; probably our best performance of the whole campaign in terms of playing for the full hour.

“We started well – which isn’t like us - and kept it going and finished well so it was a near-perfect performance and it’d be brilliant if we could repeat that in the final.”

Mindset

For Cavan to perform for the “full hour” O’Keeffe knows they must enter Corke Park with the correct mindset.

“I’m just hoping that everyone who gets a run will play the game and not the occasion.

“Everyone has worked hard to be ready physically and now it’s just about preparing ourselves mentally and try and make sure we hit the ground running, get a few early scores and settle down into our game.”

The well-decorated dual star knows all about playing on the biggest GAA stage by dint of her heroics with the Cavan ladies footballers over the years. O’Keeffe is conscious of the need for calmness and composure to be packed in the bags going down the road on Sunday.

“We can’t expect every one of us to have the perfect game against Armagh, but we just want to see the team play to its potential and hopefully that’ll be good enough to get us over the line.”

The task facing Cavan is a serious challenge though. In this year’s championship semi-final, Armagh beat Roscommon by 4-19 to 2-19 with an unanswered 2-4 tally after half-time. That victory complemented their victory (1-14 to 1-8) over the same opposition in the 3A League final; a league that Cavan failed to enter.

Collective

Like Cavan, Armagh’s strengths are more about the collective than the individual but in Rachael Trainor and Sínead Quinn, they have two full-forwards who are renowned score-getters and will take some watching this Sunday.

Cavan have a lot going for themselves too. The squad’s 2-12 to 1-9 semi-final victory over Kildare spoke volumes for their grit, character, belief, ambition and array of skills.

And in the likes of Róisín O’Keeffe, Cavan have match winners. The mind races back to when she pulled all the strings against Delvin and helped herself to a hat-trick of goals as Lacken Celtic won the All-Ireland camogie Junior B title.

Now just days ahead of one of her biggest days in her illustrious sporting career, the Cavan camogie captain says that the Blues will travel to HQ more in expectation than hope.

“We’re going to Croke Park to win, not just to compete,” she says emphatically.

Here’s hoping Róisín achieves her goals again this Sunday!