All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Round One

Derry v Meath

Saturday, Swatragh, 2pm

By Shaun Casey

MEATH are familiar foes for Derry as it was the Royals who ended their All-Ireland run at the quarter-final stage last season.

Derry fell behind early on but mounted an impressive comeback to bring themselves back into contention with goals from Dervla O’Kane and Aoife Shaw. It wasn’t enough however to steal something from the game.

The sides also met in the league which Shannon O’Doherty describes as “a game of two halves” and Meath once again came out on top.

“We’re going great. I suppose we didn’t do as well in Ulster as we had hoped to do, and I think from that we’ve just reset and regrouped again and refocused to aim towards the All-Ireland,” said O’Doherty.

“It’s going great. We’ve got the club league matches out of the way, so we’re all geared now towards the All-Ireland.

“This year’s match (with Meath), it was like a game of two halves. There was a very strong gale-force wind and they made use of their half I suppose.

“From that we’ve taken back the Sleacht Néill and Coleraine girls, we didn’t have them for that match. But we know what they (Meath) are like. They’re a strong, physical team and I’m sure we’ll be ready for them this time round.

“We kind of know their way of play now and that’s the running game completely, they definitely attack from defence.”

From the outside, Derry’s league form was poor, only winning one of their four games, but they were unlucky not to pick up more points.

“The Wexford game we played up in Owenbeg, I think in the end up there might have been a 13-point difference in the game but up until about ten minutes to go there wasn’t.

“There might have been two or three points so that could have gone either way as well. The Cork game, it was absolutely horrendous conditions and again it was a game of two halves and Cork just used theirs more wisely.

“So, it was definitely a competitive League for us and then we had the win against Kildare up in Banagher and then obviously the three-point defeat to Meath.”

There are plenty of learnings to take from the League and the return of the Sleacht Néill and Coleraine players, who missed the first game against Meath through club commitments, is a massive boost.

“I think we just need to start from the word go. We’re more inclined to maybe not fully get into a game until it’s half time and then we’ve lost that whole half where we could have been building on the scoreboard.

“Physicality and fitness were definitely a big thing from the League but having the Sleacht Néill and the Coleraine girls, who have been training throughout the winter, has helped us on the fitness side of things.

“Probably the biggest thing for learning going into the Meath game is physicality. Those girls can sail into a tackle and that’s probably what we couldn’t do at the start of the year.”