By Paul O’Donovan
“It was disappointing, but we can accept a defeat like that because we were outmuscled everywhere and out-gunned. We couldn’t get our key players into the game. We couldn’t get a foothold, and we couldn’t get two scores back to back,” said proud Delvin manager Jimmy O’Grady after his side lost to Lacken in the AIB All-Ireland Junior ‘B’ Camogie Club Championship final on Sunday.
“So I have no qualms. I am very, very proud of the girls. I was proud of them before we arrived here today. I would have loved to have finished off the year with an All-Ireland title, but we came into the game as one of the two best teams in Ireland, looking to be the best team in Ireland and we came up short by a good bit. But the girls are very understanding in that dressing room. They are disappointed but they have no excuses.”
O’Grady paid compliments to Lacken’s star corner-forward Róisín O’Keeffe who scored three goals and a point saying: “Sure she is a Messi of camogie. She has the knack of being in the right place at the right time. That is not luck, that is class. We tried three or four different players to mark her, we were going to double up on her, and in the end we went toe to toe with them and we just couldn’t master them.
“We came back into the game with those two goals in the second-half, but really, we just couldn’t get them to panic. We needed them to get within a score of them it could have been different, but whenever we got a nose up they were putting their foot on top of our heads and we just couldn’t get a stranglehold on the game.
“We couldn’t put them under pressure. We jingled it about in the forward line and tried to get better ball into them, but they dealt with everything we threw at them. There were only two or three girls that came up 50/50 with their opponents and the rest were just outmuscled but that is no one’s fault, all the girls trained so hard all year and put in a tremendous effort.
“Two or three years ago, Delvin couldn’t field on their own and they had to amalgamate with Cullion. They took a chance again and went back on their own to try and find their own identity again.
business end
“When I took over, my aim was to get the girls to the business end of the league and the business end of the championship. But as the ball started to roll it began to roll faster and harder. Then we had that titanic battle against Annacurra from Wicklow. It was an absolute blinder of a game, and winning the Leinster championship is a brilliant memory to have but today was just a bridge too far,” O’Grady continued.
“If you were beaten by a bad decision by the referee or by a late point it would be hard to stomach, but today at the end wasn’t hard to stomach.
“The support we got today was absolutely brilliant. If there is anything to come out of today apart from the great experience, then hopefully today will have inspired some younger players to come on board with Delvin camogie.
“They will look at that today and say ‘I want to play for Delvin and I want to reach Westmeath and Leinster finals and All-Ireland finals and go out and win them’, and that would be great if it did inspire a few of them. Some of those young girls in that squad never believed that they would be playing in an All-Ireland final today. I can’t compliment these girls enough, I can’t compliment enough their manner, their decorum, on and off the field, there has never been a row ever.
“They are daughters to be very proud of, that is something they have got from their DNA and they are a credit to their families and their club and their village.
“Obviously one or two of them were upset from time to time when they were dropped, but they never sulked, and they got on with it. I am very proud of them and I would have loved to have finished off today on a high but it wasn’t to be and I shook hand with all of the Lacken players after the game and congratulated them.”
l See also pages 50-51 & 55.
