Brick ready to build on camogie success

Damian Stack Kerry camogie boss Ian Brick is hoping to carry some of last year’s momentum into 2020

TOPPING or equalling last year will take some doing for Kerry camogie.

In the space of a couple of months the Kingdom claimed a first All Ireland title – seeing off Limerick in the Premier Junior Final at Headquarters – and backed it up with a first ever All Ireland club crown – Clanmaurice overcoming Westmeath champions Raharney after a replay.

Truly those were the best of times. Moments to savour, achievements that franked over a decade of hard work to get camogie in the county to such a high standard. That silverware made manifest the hopes and dreams of everybody involved with the game in the county, made manifest the blood, sweat and tears of everybody who donned the green and gold over the years.

Those twin successes have moved the Kingdom to the next level in more ways than one. Strictly speaking, yes, their victory in the Premier Junior moves them up a grade to intermediate, but possibly – and probably more importantly – it’s brought a whole new recognition to camogie in the county.

From toiling under the radar, doing it for the love of the game, these players have become visible role models and an inspiration for a whole new generation. In essence the Kerry camogie squad and community are living breathing symbols of what the 2020 project for increasing visibility of and participation in women’s sport is all about.

People now know about these players. They recognise the names. Players like Patrice Diggin, Laura Collins and Jackie Horgan are recognisable even to the casual sports fan in the county. After 2019 Kerry camogie has broken through.

“The girls will be better able to say that,” manager Ian Brick says.

“But from my own perspective just meeting anybody at all and talking about camogie and [them] asking ‘are you staying on?’ and they’re just so delighted for the girls and the positivity of seeing them on the television and what they’ve done for Kerry camogie and just for young girls growing up in the county in general that it’s another possible option for young girls.

“I know the girls themselves on the team they work so hard promoting the game and they’ll take every opportunity they can to promote the game and to encourage younger girls to take up the sport. It’s been absolutely fabulous to be honest.

“All I can say is that we’re hoping to keep that going for 2020 now.”

And therein lies the rub. In a way that’s almost as hard if not harder than what they’ve already achieved. To maintain standards, to retain their newly elevated status, to continue to make strides and push on instead of falling back.

Given what they’ve done so far and given the work ethic and desire required to achieve it, we can’t imagine there will be any drop in standards in that regard. The quality of opponent they’re going to face in this year’s league campaign means complacency won’t be an issue.

They start this weekend away from home against Galway’s second side and looking at the rest of the group – rounded out by Wexford, Down and Derry – a retention of their status for another year would probably be an achievement in and of itself.

“That’s basically it [it’s a tough group],” Brick agrees

“Where we’re going from last year is that we didn’t win any game in the league itself, but we were competitive in all the games and the fact that we are playing three away games is a disadvantage as well, but we’re not going to be using that as an excuse.

“It will be difficult, of course, but what we’ll be looking for first of all is to maintain our position in Division 2 and to try and get to the knock-out stages of course. Being realistic at the moment with the injuries that we have we’re just going to try and be competitive for the first couple of games, we have a week and a break then after for Derry and reassess then again after that.

“Just two blocks of two and we’ll be definitely looking at the first two games to take something out of those games alright.”

Those injuries come at an inopportune time with a to trip to Gort coming this Saturday afternoon.

“Yeah I suppose we’re missing a few and gaining a few so we’re pretty much around the same numbers at the moment,” Brick explains.

“Now saying that we have a good few injuries that would be serious enough kind of too. So we’re going to be well short for the first game against Galway and possibly even a few more again after that.

“That’s a bit of a set-back alright, but on the flip side of that then we’ll be able to give some of the new girls coming through the opportunity to play as well. We’re just mindful of those injuries and not risking anything long term.

“You’re talking about Patrice [Diggin], you’re talking about Laura Collins, Jackie Horgan, Jessica Fitzell. That’s it really. The fact that they’ve had the month off from finishing up the club scene over the winter and in some cases you’d have hoped that some of the injuries would heal, but when they start back training then again you just realise that it’s just not the case and in other cases then, take Jackie and Jessica, they would have been playing with their colleges and they would have gone over on their knee and ankle and that’s those injuries.

“At the moment it’s not ideal, but we’ll still have twenty players available to us anyway so we’ll be good to go for that.”

The Kingdom’s Division 2 campaign last year proved hugely important to their All Ireland ambitions.

“Oh it was a massive [help],” Brick acknowledges.

“The fact we were able to maintain our position there was a huge confidence boost for the girls as well. I remember like the Galway game itself was almost kind of a culture shock to be honest, just the intensity that the Galway girls brought to it, more so than any other team, it was a huge eye opener for the girls, but it did, absolutely it stood to them for the rest of the campaign and look we’ve trained a little bit differently this year as well and for the short period we’ve been back, but it’s the confidence that the girls have brought forward from last year really that’s very noticeable.

“It’s just great to see them developing already as players and as a team. It may not be reflected early on in some of the games, but we’ll know ourselves where we are.”

The vast bulk of these players, of course, were in action until quite recently with the Raharney replay taking place in early December. That could be a double edged sword. They could be sharper than most as a result of it, or they might be a little tired because of it.

For Brick the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

“The only way we can look at it is how the girls have responded since we got back training again,” he explains.

“That was the first decision, when do we go back? And that was a hugely important decision to get that balance right. We knew we were going to be later coming back than any of the other teams, but the girls had game time and they were training all along anyway, so what we’d be hoping for is that they’d be a lot fresher.

“Again you’re dealing with a smaller panel and you’re calling on he same group of girls to come back to the well back again to the well to deliver time after time, which isn’t easy either. The fact I think more importantly that they have two All Irelands behind them now would be a huge confidence boost to them alright.

“Another thing this is going into the league and the championship this year is that there’s no real expectation and we’ve no pressure on them really to deliver. They’ve won their All Ireland now and obviously we’ll be hoping to maintain our status in both competitions, but whatever we get beyond that will be a bonus and that’s how we’re looking at it.”