It’s all about the future

IT’S all about the future for the Aughrim Junior camogie side as they prepare for battle on Saturday in Baltinglass in the county decider against neighbours Annacurra.

Previous results this season suggest that the Annacurra women are further down the road than their Aughrim counterparts, but manager Rachael Campbell believes that with a little bit of lady luck her young side can be competitive against their physically stronger opponents.

But for Rachael and her colleague Noeleen Whelan the victory has already been achieved by the simple fact of an Aughrim team being in a county final in their second year back competing at adult level in a number of years with captain Annette Keenan the only player on the side who played when Aughrim last won a county Senior crown in 1999.

Rachael and Noeleen have been with those group of players since they were at under-12 level and the progress they have made as a unit has been nothing short of wonderful.

“We got involved with Aughrim and we went out and lost every single game week after week after week and eventually we won, and we went on from there, and now we are here in an adult county final. Our goal is to launch Aughrim back into adult camogie,’ she said.

Rachael sees the big difference between the teams come down to age profile.

While Annacurra boast a team made up of twenty-somethings, Aughrim are very much depending on late teens to fill their ranks and the physical differences are what could tell on the day.

Win, lose or draw I think it’s great for Aughrim to be in the final. We’ve already competed with Annacurra this year and you’ve got to admire them for where they’ve come from.

‘But we are competing, we have new players coming in, our underage is working well so seeing this adult team survive for the next five years at adult level will be our success.

‘Winning isn’t everything. We have something to aspire to and it’s great to see players continuing past the age of 13 and 14,’She added.

The Junior camogie final between Aughrim and Annacurra gets underway at 1pm in Baltinglass.