Red letter day as striving leads Kerry to Croker
ALL IRELAND JUNIOR CAMOGIE FINAL
Dublin v Kerry
Sunday, September 9 Croke Park, 12 noon
A red letter day for Kerry’s camogie players next Sunday in Croke Park when they will contest their first ever All Ireland final at headquarters in the Junior decider.
It’s been a steep learning curve for this particular squad of players since Stephen Goggin took over as manager three years ago.
A lot of heartbreak and setbacks along the way, but eventually all of their aims finally came to fruition throughout this past season.
Winners of Division 4 of the National League in 2014, the Division 3 title was added this year and having progressed from Junior B to Junior Premier they have now qualified for the All Ireland final having lost out at the semi-final stage last year to Dublin, whom they will now face in next Sunday’s decider.
It’s been a learning experience along the way for both the management team and the players. One of building blocks with steady progress being made over the three year period.
Bringing in Anthony Fealy to oversee the physical preparations in the second year brought about significant improvement in terms of the players physical conditioning and he addition of quite a number of young players to this year’s squad has added enormously to the options available, and indeed, to the spread of scorers with the onus in this respect falling heavily on the shoulders of the outstanding Patrice Diggin in the previous campaigns.
2017 was somewhat of a breakthrough year with success in Munster, beating Cork in the provincial decider (0-14 1-10). Ultimately, Kerry fell short in the All Ireland semi-final being beaten by Dublin (1-12 0-9) in Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds with Patrice Diggin contributing eight of Kerry’s nine point tally.
A contest in which Dublin’s greater level of experience and physicality proved to be key to the eventual outcome. However, Clanmaurice’s great run in the All Ireland Club Championship provided the players with the opportunity to make that much needed breakthrough at national level.
They ultimately lost out in a replay to Kilmessan in the final (0-9 0-5), but a lot was gained in terms of the belief and confidence it had given the players to compete at this level.
So, the aim this year was to climb another rung in the ladder and so far all of the boxes have been ticked. Success in the league was the first target and at The Ragg, just outside Thurles in mid April a historic Division 3 league success was achieved with a final win over Roscommon (2-8 0-4) with Patrice Diggin and Alannah Whelan the goal scorers in a game in which the team captain Jackie Horgan played a significant part in what was a quite unfamiliar defensive role for her.
Favourites to retain their provincial title the rescheduling of the final was a factor in terms of their defeat at the hands of Cork (1-12 0-8) in Charleville at the end of May.
The reformatted All Ireland series meant that they were playing in a four team round robin group series, and, with the first two games at home it provided them with a significant advantage, which they duly capitalised upon beating both Limerick (1-15 0-8), and Clare (2-11 0-6). Defeat to Offaly (3-6 1-9) away from home didn’t halt their progression to the All Ireland semi-final, but it provided a wake up call which was reflected in their second half performance against Roscommon in August scoring 1-9 without reply having trailed by a point (1-4 0-6) at the half-time break.
Dublin were always likely to provide the opposition in the final and they disposed of Offaly, pretty emphatically (3-12 1-3) in the other semi-final. It has installed them as firm favourites to make amends for last year’s defeat to Westmeath and with fifty seven clubs in the county they have a wealth of individual talent from which to choose.
However, Kerry cannot in any way be ruled out of the equation having made considerable progress since last season’s semi-final defeat.
They have scored goals in every round to date and limited Clare, Limerick and Roscommon to a game average of just seven points.
As a team they are a much more stronger unit and in team captain Jackie Horgan they have an outstanding leader. Opportunities like this don’t come around too often, so it’s time to seize the moment and seal the season’s ambitions with silverware on the biggest stage of all.
Kerry
Verdict: