By Niall Gartland

TWO years ago Áine McGill played her part in a memorable All-Ireland Intermediate triumph for the Derry camogs, but she’s yet to get her hands on a provincial medal with the county.

That’s the prize on offer this Sunday as Derry attempt to avenge last year’s Ulster Senior Championship final defeat to their neighbours Antrim.

McGill, who is a blood cancer researcher at Ulster University, has a busy and so incredibly worthwhile working life, but she’s managed to juggle her professional career with her sporting life and is looking forward to giving Antrim a rattle.

“In previous years we’ve always had competitive games with Antrim – they beat us by a point in the semi-finals two years ago, and then they pipped us by a point in last year’s Ulster final.

“Then we had a good win against them in the group stages of the championship last year.

“They’re in very good form, they did incredibly well to get to Division 1A, that’s an unbelievable achievement, but I think when it comes to Ulster Championship games, it’s always going to be nip and tuck and we’ll definitely have a go at it.”

While Antrim achieved promotion to the top-tier with that Division 1B final against Clare, Derry had no such luck in Division 2A, losing their league final to Offaly. Still, the very fact they reached the final in the first year under new manager Eamonn Melaugh (like Áine, from Lavey) bodes well for their championship hopes at both provincial and national level.

“Eamonn was appointed late in the day, he came in around November/December time, so it was a tight turnaround to get girls out initially.

“We managed to get a panel together before the league, I think girls took a bit more time to themselves as it’s been a heavy enough couple of seasons.

“We got there in the end and the majority of our panel have been there from previous years.

“We were happy enough to get back into the league final, we felt we deserved it, we’ve a lot of good players and had performed well, but we still wouldn’t have been happy with our performance on the day itself against Offaly even though we were underdogs. It didn’t go well for us but hopefully we can bounce back.”

Derry came up against a familiar face on the sidelines in their Ulster Championship semi-final victory over Armagh, their previous manager PJ O’Mullan, who memorably led the Oak Leafers to All-Ireland honours in 2023. Perhaps his insider knowledge was a factor in how the game panned out with Derry needing extra-time to get over the line.

“PJ knows us inside out and they set up very well against us. They’d a strong breeze in the first-half but I suppose we were still disappointed going in behind at half-time.

“We were up by six points a few minutes from full-time but they got two goals on the trot, but maybe they deserved that, we were maybe a bit complacent going into the game and they gave us a good game.

“We knew we’d a good bit of experience and fitness behind us going into extra-time and we got there in the end but recognise that we need to improve.”

McGill recognises that both Antrim and their forthcoming All-Ireland Championship campaign at senior level represents a big step up from their Division 2A campaign in terms of competitiveness but this is where they want to be.

“Last year was our first year up at senior since I don’t know how long.

“Retaining our senior status was the important thing and though we’d have liked to have got to a quarter-final, I think most of the girls enjoyed the games.

“We were well-beaten in a few of them, but it was still a great experience and you have to play the best teams to get better.

“It’s definitely a position we’re happy to be in – we’re going to be playing at a higher standard from now until the end of the season and that’s something we’re aware of at training, we’re trying to step it up a gear.”