Avondale and Kiltegan are one step away

Third meeting this season

THEY’VE met three times this year already with three victories going the way of the Avondale women but don’t be throwing your house on the possibility of a fourth win for Brian Olohan’s side as Kiltegan plan on reversing the trend when the ball in thrown in for the Wicklow Intermediate final in Baltinglass on Saturday at 2.45pm.

These two capable camogie sides met in the Intermediate league final in Joule Park Aughrim which the Rathdrum side won 5-11 to 3-6, a somewhat misleading score that suggests a one-sided affair. It was anything but. However, a really strong brand of running camogie and some scintillating attackers in the form of Tanya McDonald and Caitlin Olohan proved too much for Jonathan Tallon’s side in the decider at county grounds.

A championship meeting some weeks ago saw Avondale win by three points, showing a narrowing of the divide and Carnew’s narrow and somewhat disappointing 0-5 to 0-4 victory over Carnew Emmets in the semi-final does not do justice to the level of difficulty involved in going to the Wexford border and coming away with anything easy which suggests that Avondale will face a tougher task come Saturday afternoon.

A late Fiona Hobson point from an instinctive flick on a breaking ball proved sufficient for Kiltegan to win on a dark evening in Carnew. Kiltegan will need Hobson, Lynn Fenton, Jackie Byrne and Elisha Ryan to name but a few to stand up and be counted in the decider come Saturday.

This is Brian Olohan’s first year in charge of this team, but he is no stranger to any of the younger players having coached at underage down through the years.

The club folded in recent years but thankfully for camogie’s sake they made a welcome return and Olohan was approached to take the job this year and he had proved to have been a very wise choice given the performances on the field of play so far.

There’s a strong tradition of camogie in Avondale GAA club. Helen Heffernan is involved in the backroom team and she would be no stranger to the game and a several of the current players would have witnessed or heard about their mothers’ exploits on the field of battle in Wicklow over the years.

It’s that tradition that attracted Brian Olohan to the job, that history, and it’s a style of play that he has introduced to the team that he hopes will help build on that tradition and take this Avondale team to the top of the ladder in Wicklow camogie.

At the first meeting I had with the squad we set out our goals,’ he said. ‘To date all of them have been achieved. We wanted to win the league and we want to win the championship. Getting there (to the final) was the most important part. We set out a plan to get there. The restructuring of the camogie league was a big help for us because we got games and we got wins under our belts,’ he added.

The league final was a very interesting game for Brian Olohan. In the 60 minutes of action he saw his side play to their strengths and their weaknesses. He watched them stick to the plan and the style and tear their opponents asunder but he also watched them revert to old ways and allow the game to become messy and stagnant and that to Brian Olohan is unacceptable.

‘They are very good when they play to their potential and work with the system that we have tried to install. There’s a certain type of hurling I want them to play. That hurling is moving the ball into space, keeping possession and trying to play camogie like they play football, that’s how I would describe it. Playing it into space and running off the ball,’ he added.

Olohan’s managerial rival is Wicklow hurling GDA and Kiltegan Senior hurler Jonathan Tallon who watched his charges dice with championship death in Carnew as the daylight fled on a murky Tuesday evening.

How does having come up short against Avondale on three occasions this season already effect his preparations with the squad.

‘It’s good for us (the fact that they’ve played and lost to them three times) in a sense that we got a good mullacking in the league, then the league final was positive, and we ran them to three points in the championship when we were missing a few girls,’ he said.

Tallon says that his charges were disappointed with their performance in Carnew in the county semi-final but that the battle and the experience has helped them hugely in their preparation for this county final on Saturday.

‘Carnew really put it up to us, they wouldn’t let us hurl so the girls know that they will have to work for this on Saturday. We entered the Carlow camogie league this year again and it was much better this year in that it was just one league, so we came up against the likes of St Mullins and Myshall and those were great games to get.

‘We got to the league final and played fairly well and took plenty of positives from it. Also, considering we were stepping up from Junior last year and the girls have never thrown in the towel it shows that the girls always have something in reserve,’ he added.

Tallon’s team selection has become a headache according to the Kiltegan boss. While the defence picks itself more or less, the form and performances of some of the club’s younger players has meant that he is still very undecided about his attack and he considers that to be a fantastic place to be.

He expects a feisty battle and accepts that Kiltegan are very much the underdogs going into this clash.

‘We know what we have to do. We have to step up and we have to perform,’ he added.

Brian Olohan says his charges are really looking forward to the final and that they will be accompanied on the journey west by a healthy support. He dismisses any mention that the Baltinglass venue might be of any assistance to Kiltegan and says that it’s totally irrelevant where the game is played as far as he is concerned.

‘The squad are in good spirits, they’re working hard, and we have a couple of (selection) decision to make this week. We’re super impressed by some of our younger players and they’ve given us a few selection headaches,’ he said.

Brian Olohan says that from what he knows from working with Jonathan Tallon in recent years he is expecting something very different from the Kiltegan side when the battle commences in Baltinglass on Saturday afternoon.

One of these teams will be playing Senior camogie in 2019. That’s a wonderful prize that should produce a belter of a game. Panels from league final: Avondale: Joyce Heffernan; Kelly Rattray Kavanagh, Tracey Sunderland, Carol Murphy/Benton; Michelle Humphries, Mairead Dunne, Lorraine Doyle; Katie Kennedy, Stephanie Rattray; Ciara Clancy, Caitlin Olohan, Shifra Vervee; Antonia Heffernan, Tanya Mcdonald, Stephanie Keogh. Subs: Amanda Burke, Ellie McNamara, Orla Byrne.

Kiltegan: Teresa Keogh; Laura O’Keeffe, Patricia Keogh, Amelia Cullen; Andrea Byrne, Michelle Farrell, Aine Timmons; Sarah Fennelly, Elisha Ryan; Evelyn Deans, Fiona Hobson, Jackie Byrne; Eimear Doyle, Lynn Fenton, Sarah Byrne. Subs: Stephanie Jackson, Meadhbh Thornton, Paula Fenton, Jessica Foley.