‘To play in an All Ireland there and captain your team is incredible’

STILL very much young in years Jackie Horgan is in her fourth season as a member of the squad.

From a Gaelic football background with St Senans she will realise a lifelong ambition when she leads Kerry out on to Croke Park, for what is a historic occasion for Kerry Camogie.

“Winning the league was a huge boost, going up playing against good teams, you can only improve and I suppose it improved us and given us a boost coming into summer hurling.

“It was a downer [losing the Munster final] after winning the league, but I suppose on the day we didn’t show up we knew when we looked back on it we didn’t play our best hurling.

“We didn’t convert, but in a good way it helped us coming into the summer (because) we knew what we had to improve on. The two games we played in Abbeydorney [Limerick and Clare, we were familiar with the pitch and I suppose you always have an advantage with your home crowd.

“Over a few years we always got to semi-finals, never got over the line, but this year we knew the hurt we felt in Limerick last year [semi-final versus Dublin], that drove us on. We just needed to get that step over the semi final and getting to the All Ireland club final last year kind of helped us, because we knew we had got to that stage, so, we knew we could do it.

“I know Dublin beat us last year in the semi-final, but we still have a good chance. If we weren’t good enough we wouldn’t be there, hopefully the occasion won’t get the better of us and we show up on the day. Dublin were always going to be the favourites to come out of it [Group 2], so, look, they’re favourites, but there’s no harm in being the underdog either.

“The aim is to stay in the game, start from the get go, our work rate really, pressure, that if you pressure the ball from the full forward line coming out and the ball breaks down anything can happen so the aim will be just to work hard.

“The boys [management team], this is their third year involved, every year we have been improving, they know us inside out, we know what they expect from us, what we need to do and there’s a good bond there as well which makes it even better.

“It’s huge [to captain in an All Ireland final]. Growing up I would be going up to watch the footballers there from the age of seven or eight, sitting in the stand, always thinking I would love to play there, so it was a dream to play out there, and, to play in an All Ireland final there and to captain your team it’s incredible.

“I am really honoured. It’s great to get there, but, now that we are there, we are not going up for the weekend away, we are going up to win.”