'This was our strongest panel in the last three years'

Camogie

Cavan U16 camogie manager Darragh Madden felt from the start of the year that there was a national title in his side – and so it came to pass, as they defeated Wicklow last week to claim the ‘C’ All-Ireland in fine style.

“We knew we had a strong panel,” Madden said.

“We lost the two previous All-Irelands at that grade. We had trials around January, we had three trials and we kind of knew this was going to be the best panel we had in the last three years and it proved to be that way.”

The Limerick native and Stradone resident, whose home club is Camogue Rovers in the Treaty County, felt his side were deserving winners on the day.

“We’d beaten Wicklow already easily earlier on, they had travelled down with half a team and I don’t think they took the match very seriously. We were reminding the players that it was going to be a different game but just to keep doing what we’d been doing all season.

“In fairness, I think we played very well and controlled the game for the majority of it but in the last 10 minutes, we wobbled a little bit but there is a lot of leadership in the team and the real leaders came to the fore in the last two or three minutes and got us the critical scores to get us over the line.”

Cavan had four dual players who won U16 football All-Ireland medals the day before.

“There was Sarah Devine, joint-captain, Kate McSeain, Eimear Gannon and Molly Smith. Eimear had played a full game midfield the day before and Kate McSeain had played a full game too and they were still going strong at the end of the game, Eimear Gannon got Player of the Match which showed the real heart and desire that girl had to get that All-Ireland win.”

Madden feels that camogie in Cavan is very much on an upward trajectory.

“Down in Limerick, I never got involved in camogie, I only got involved in camogie when I came up here. The standard is good, it’s not Kilkenny or Cork or Limerick but it is good. Camogie is popular, it’s more popular than what hurling is in Cavan and there is a bigger club scene in camogie than there is in hurling. It’s very healthy and there’s a lot of good players coming up.

“I’ve been over that U16 panel now for three years and that was the best panel we’ve had. That team we had this year is the future of Cavan camogie.

“When those players are in their early to mid-20s, they are going to be better than what’s there at the moment on the senior panel, they’re that good. I’m going to stay with the U16s next year, Declan Keating is doing a great job with the U14s, these girls are moving on to the minor.

“There is good work going on underage, it’s organised, there’s a lot work going into it and hopefully they will reap the benefits in a couple of years.

"Ladies football is very, very strong, they were in the top division in the finals of U14, U16 and minor so we’ve got to be doing our bit of work behind the scenes to promote camogie. I think it is in a good healthy place at underage at the moment and hopefully we can keep it going and keep churning out players.

“The dedication and commitment of the parents was also brilliant this year.”

Having been over the Laragh senior team for the last three years, Darragh is now in charge of Ballinagh.

“I enjoy doing it, it’s better when you win obviously! We have a county U15 team this year now too and we have a few blitzes coming up in that. We are really trying to push it at underage because the competition from other sports is very strong.

If we’re doing our work underage, we’ll keep girls playing the game which is important.”

Also on the winning backroom team were selectors Paddy Devine (Castletara) and Elaine Keenan (Shercock). Mary Clarke was on stats and Noelle Madden was team medic.