AIB Ulster Club Senior Camogie Championship final Swatragh (Derry) 0-5 Loughgiel (Antrim) 3-16
THERE was nothing Swatragh could do in Beragh on Saturday to prevent Loughgiel capturing their seventh Ulster senior club championship title and completing a first three-in-a -row.
The Antrim team has been in every provincial final since 2014, while a number of their players have featured in all 11 finals and none of the present team are in the teenage category.
By contrast, Swatragh had won the Derry title for the first time since 2005 with a very young team indeed.
Five of their six starting forwards on Saturday are still teenagers, some still with another couple of years of underage camogie ahead of them.
Máiréad McNicholl was the only experienced head in their forward line and she had to leave the action after 19 minutes with
hamstring problems.
Swatragh never really got going despite Aoibheann Mullan opening their account in the fifth minute.
Niamh McQuillan did well in goals, Gráinne McAtamney was a tower of strength at the heart of their defence, but the defence as a whole was under constant pressure and did well to contain Loughgiel to an interval scoreline of 2-3 to 0-1.
The champions took charge as soon as Katie McKillop popped a pass for Annie Lynn to hit the net after eight minutes.
Róisín McCormick scored two classy points either side of a
long-range point from Lucia
McNaughton and then placed a deft pass into Caitrín Dobbin’s hand with only McQuillan to beat.
That was in first-half injury -time and it looked at that stage that the floodgates were about to open.
Swatragh opened the second-half scoring – but before they got their third point in the 41st minute, Loughgiel had bagged a third goal,
Lucia McNaughton’s cross taken down skilfully by Dobbin and fired home from 10 metres.
It was now 3-6 to 0-2 and there was little respite in the final 20 minutes for the team that had broken Slaughtneil’s nine-year reign in
Derry.
Loughgiel pushed on to
score another 10 points, some well-worked team scores, a couple
coming off individual brilliance and they ran their bench in the last
quarter as well.
Team captain Christine McCloskey was delighted to lift the cup
as captain for the second year
in a row.
“After all those years when we lost finals to Slaughtneil, we were just dreaming of days like these
and we will really savour them,” she said.
“Three consecutive titles are just fantastic for us. It’s a testament to the girls on the panel and the work they have put in. We are a very committed panel and we have made many
sacrifices for this to happen.
“Our strength as a team comes from our panel, they are the driving force behind all that we do.
“Over the past couple of years, and this year in particular, we have had to use a lot of players because of injury, because of county. The players who have come in have just pushed on.
“Over the last couple of games in Ulster, we had to bring in players to start against Clonduff because of sickness and then Anna’s (Connolly) red card from that game. They want to stay in the team and they are pushing all of us, all the time.
“Swatragh know they are a better team than the scoreline shows. They will come back because they are a very young team.”
The prize for Loughgiel is now an All-Ireland semi-final in a fortnight against Galway champions Sarsfields, a repeat of the 2022 final.
“It’s a different challenge for us, for sure. But it’s good to win here
today and have that ahead of us,” added McCloskey.
Match stats
Swatragh N McQuillan; E McCartney, N Quinn, C Turner; N McKenna, G McAtamney (0-1), C Bradley; B McCullagh, D O’Kane; E Quinn
(0-2, 0-1 free), M McNicholl, A Mullan (0-1); S Quinn, MT McCullagh (0-1), E Murray.
Subs O Quinn for M McNicholl (19), D McGuckin for O Walsh (38),
E Conway for S Quinn (49), C O’Kane for E McCartney (55),
C McGuckin for E Murray (59)
Loughgiel E Boyle; C McKillop, K Lynn, F McVeigh; M McGarry,
E McFadden, S Doran; A Boyle, K McKillop (0-1); C McCloskey capt (0-1), L McNaughton (0-3), A Lynn (0-1); C Laverty, R McCormick (0-7, 0-3 frees), C Dobbin (2-2) Subs M O’Hara for S Doran (45),
A McKillop (0-1 free) for C Dobbin (51), S Deery for M McGarry (51), O Laverty for C McCloskey (55), Ciara Dobbin for F McVeigh (57), M Laverty for R McCormick (59)
Referee P McDonald (Cavan)
