CAMOGIE’S BIGGEST DAY
Three super finals up for decision on Saturday
IT’S the biggest day of the club camogie calendar in Wicklow and all roads lead to Baltinglass this Saturday for a triple header of finals at Junior, Intermediate and Senior level.
In the Senior clash at 4pm it’s the defending champions Knockananna taking on their arch rivals Donard-The Glen once again.
Knockananna are under new management this year and the teams enjoyed a belter of a game in the group stages so a repeat of that is both likely and desired by what should be a large travelling support from all over the county.
Knockananna manager Brian Byrne says his side have to concentrate on their own game.
“Donard have a very good team with a good mix of younger and more experienced players and we’re well aware of the magnitude of the challenge they’ll bring,” he said. “They play with a lot of physicality but also have very skilful hurlers across the pitch so we’ll have to be at a very best to turn them over.
“Having said that though I think that it’s important that most of our emphasis is on our own game and how we prepare and perform on the day. If we play to our capability it will take a very good team to stop the girls so everyone just has to concentrate on winning their own individual battles and then bring that together and collectively work for each other as a team,” he added.
Across in the west, Donard-The Glen boss Caiman Kiely says there were encouraging signs for his outfit from the earlier championship meeting this year.
“We know that Knockananna will pose a huge obstacle for us to get over on Saturday. They’re county champions for a reason and have some very talented camogie players. We played them in the group stage earlier in the year and although we lost by a couple of points I think there were encouraging signs for us that day. We were missing a few players ourselves for that match but I think we learned a lot from that outing and have been on an upward curve since then,” he said.
“Although I wasn’t over the team last year I understand how disappointed they were to lose in the final last year and what it would mean to them to get the win on Saturday. I suppose there probably is a factor of revenge seeing that it’s the same opponents. This is where we’ve been aiming to be all year.
“At the same time though have to go out and play our normal game and can’t let emotion get the better of us. I think that we have a lot of different weapons across the pitch and have the skill and determination to come out the right side of the result,” he added. Full preview inside.