Brady hopes ‘slow-burner’of a season ignites in final

It hasn’t been plain sailing for Lurgan senior ladies this season but they are where they want to be now, says manager Anthony Brady.

“It’s been a slow burner of a year, a lot of players with the county seniors, five or six in there, and there were six in with the county minors and a lot of basketball taking away from away it too as well. So the league was probably a slow burner,” Brady told the Anglo-Celt last week.

“We lost three games in the league, came fourth. So we lost to everyone above us, but we knew when we would get everyone together, that there would be a chance that we'd be able to push on. And it did take a while. It took maybe to the second round of the championship before we had everyone together. Look, nothing handed out just yet but hopefully we're getting there.”

Brady took over as manager this year and detected a real drive in the group to get back to winning ways, after losing the semi-final last year to Lacken.

“I think after winning two county minor championships, and getting to two Ulster finals, winning one and losing another, and the way they went out in the championship last year to Lacken…. I suppose, had they beaten Lacken, I’d have no doubt that they probably would have beaten Drumlane and I think maybe there was a little bit of taking for granted that they were going to beat Lacken a little bit. And I think that probably happened Lacken too against Drumlane last year in the final.

“But yeah, there was a fair determination, you could see it as the year went on. They really wanted to get retribution for probably how they performed last year against Lacken in the semi-final.

“We've seen it last week (in the semi-final). We used that as a little bit of ammunition. ‘You came here last year, and it was in Lavey as well, and left it behind you’. And they didn't leave too much behind them last week so…”

Brady is a busy man, recently retired from a long career playing senior football for Killinkere but still lining out for the Cavan Masters. However, he really enjoys managing and coaching, he says.

“It has its challenges I suppose, there’s a little bit more responsibility on you when you're the manager compared to playing where you turn up, you train, you look after yourself when you're at home and you've that wee bit more time.

“I thought maybe coming into the management I'd have more time, but when it gets to this stage of the year, you don't, you're doing analysis, you're trying to keep players on side, keep them on board, making sure that everyone is flying fit, managing injuries, and chatting to the guys about how we're going to set up teams.

“And every team presents its own challenge. Whereas when you're playing, you're not worrying about that kind of stuff behind the scenes, you're probably getting the direction, whereas now you have to think about what direction you’re going to give.”

The level of preparation in ladies football is on a par with the men’s game in many respects, he believes.

“I’d say in the last five or six years, I suppose, probably from about 2016 on with Killinkere, the level of preparation jumped seriously… Sunday morning trainings, three and four hours long, maybe video analysis… the gym part came into it, which I wasn't too fond of and kind of avoided! I was too old for that kind of craic and set in my ways.

“But even here this year with the girls, we had an S & C here every Tuesday night during the winter. And great attendances, up on 20, 25, most nights and that was on a Tuesday so you had girls coming down from Dublin. So that preparation is there.

“I've got Stephen Smith, who was my manager in Killinkere last year, and I've got Matty Cahill who was with the girls two years ago, and Tony Shields, who would have been with me with the county minors a few years go as well, and Anne McEnroe, so we all know each other pretty well, and we bump our ideas off each other.

“This week has been pretty heavy, too, with just stuff from the secretary and getting ready for the final and stuff, but from a preparation point of view, yeah, it's on a par, in a sense that we're trying to push it up, because it's something we got used to in the last few years.

“So you're kind of looking back, what did we do well, what did I like about it in the last seven or eight years as a player.

“Now, it doesn’t suit everybody but we’re trying to push it, let’s lift this a little bit. There will be a bit of video analysis this week, there will be plenty of talking among ourselves, between the management team and the players, and look, hopefully by next Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll have all our work done and it’ll just be a matter of dotting the Is and crossing the Ts for the final.”

Brady has the height of respect for final opponents Crosserlough, who he feels have really improved due to having fewer players on the county panel than would be the norm.

“I’d say the county situation actually benefitted Crosserlough immensely. I would have trained Shauna (Lynch) and Neasa (Byrd) when they were with the county minors and I’d say from that, they haven’t had a full season with the club because they’ve been involved with the county minors.

“So you can see the difference in them when they played us this year, they are a well-oiled machine. They don’t have players missing with the county for big tracts of the year so earlier in the year they were probably that little bit ahead of us. Hopefully we’ll get up to speed on it.

“If you look at the two teams, they’re probably balanced pretty well. They probably have that little bit more experience, the last day we ended up with seven minors on the team by the time we finished the game.

“We played their minors in the county final and there might be one of them involved with their seniors so they are that bit more mature of a team.

“Looking back over the years, they probably should have won more Senior Championships but it’s all on the day and you see how things go.”

While he’s happy enough with how Lurgan are playing, there is still scope to get better, Brady said.

“I would have wanted to hit the heights that we hit in the semi-final a month and a half or two months ago but like that, you had the Minor Championship thrown into it and we had a week or two where we didn’t have those players.

“When you have 11 or 12 minors on your senior panel, it’s very hard to manage training and keep everyone else happy and not interfere with that minor group, who went on and won an incredible championship, they were superb.

“We have lots to improve on and we really have to knuckle down for these next two weeks.”