By Niall Gartland

ALL-IRELAND champions Kerry may stroll into town on Sunday morning, but Tyrone ladies vice-captain Meabh Corrigan says they certainly won’t be rolling out the red carpet at O’Neill’s Healy Park.

In the first of a classic Tyrone-Kerry double bill, Corrigan and her teammates will set about plotting the downfall of a team that won last year’s All-Ireland final against Galway at a canter.

As challenges go, it doesn’t get much bigger, but there is some cause for optimism. Kerry have won two of their opening three games but haven’t really shot the lights out either (and it’s likely no coincidence that legendary attacker Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh retired in the off-season).

It’s still a daunting enough prospect for the Tyrone ladies, still finding their feet in Division One, but Corrigan says they’re determined to put their best foot forward against the Kingdom.

“We’re really looking forward to it, it’s where you want to be, welcoming the All-Ireland champions to Tyrone.

“I know we’re probably the wee fish in Division One, and we’ll give them the respect they deserve, but we’re looking to go out and put in a performance no matter who we’re facing.

“They lost their first game against Armagh and got over the line in their last two games, so maybe they haven’t been at their very best, but it’s a sign of a good team that they’re still winning matches.

“It’ll be a good occasion for Tyrone ladies, playing before the men, but again it’s another league game where we want to put in a performance and show that we’re learning.”

Tyrone got their first victory of the campaign against Mayo nearly a fortnight ago, a fantastic result and a real confidence-booster for Darren McCann’s side.

Errigal Ciaran footballer Corrigan acknowledges that the Tyrone ladies are still playing catch up in some respects, particularly when it comes to strength and conditioning, but they’re willing to be patient and are putting in the hard work behind the scenes.

“We’re coming up against seasoned Division One teams and I suppose we’re a bit light in comparison, although we do play a running game and pace is one of our strengths.

“We’ve put in a lot of work since early October, a lot of it has been strength and conditioning-based and you’ve got your aerobic stuff as well.

“We have Ciaran Nash in helping out this year, he’s an Armagh man and has been absolutely brilliant and all the girls have bought massively into what he’s bringing to us.

“We probably won’t catch up physically in the space of a year, but we all have it in our heads that it’s a process and we’d love to stay up in Division One so we can hopefully show our improvements at the highest level in the coming years.”

Tyrone fell short on their first day out against Meath last month, a game that was almost entirely overshadowed by the stormy weather conditions. They were disappointed by the nature of their defeat against Armagh on their second day out, struggling to raise their game when the league holders rolled through the gears, but they made amends with a fine victory against Mayo in round three.

Corrigan said: “We were really disappointed with our second-half performance against Armagh, but we’re viewing the league as a learning process, and I think that showed up against Mayo, we came out in the second half and did ourselves justice. We still made plenty of mistakes so we’ll learn from the Mayo game too, but it was good to get a win just to settle us and know that we have it in us to put in good performances at this level.”