Brídíní Óga primed for All-Ireland tilt

By Shaun Casey

ULSTER Junior ‘A’ champions Brídíní Óga are delighted to be back in the All-Ireland series according to manager Chris Dornan, who led the club to provincial glory in his first year in charge of the team.

They now take on Fullen Gaels of Manchester in the All-Ireland quarter-final, and they can’t wait to get started. They defeated Dungiven of Derry in the Ulster decider, with goals from Aimee Traynor (2), Molly Woulahan and Eimhear McAleenan seeing them over the line.

Since winning the Ulster title, the Antrim girls have been straight back into training and preparing for the next challenge that lies ahead.

“We’re very happy at the minute,” said Dornan. “I haven’t been involved in coaching camogie in 10 years so when I came in this year, I didn’t know what to expect. The management team I have got in around me are used to coaching.

“The girls, to be fair to them, have put great effort in. We’ve trained almost 90 times this year, so they are putting the work in, and they trained the Monday night after the Ulster final after two nights of celebrating.

“It was actually one of the better sessions we’ve had in a while was really surprising, but we’re chuffed to bits that we’re there and like we do for every game, we’re just taking it one game at a time and see what we can do.”

Dornan and his management team know absolutely nothing about their opponents this weekend, and although he’ll try to gather as much information from across the Irish Sea as possible, he says it gives Brídíní Óga a chance to focus entirely on themselves.

“We know very little about them to be fair,” he added. “Some of my friends used to live in London and are involved with camogie over there so they’ll have bits and pieces, but we haven’t seen them so it’s very hard to judge.

“Even if I saw their team sheet, I wouldn’t know any of the girls for example so it’s like everything else, we spend most of our time getting our own game right. If we find out they have one or two top players, we try to get our match-ups right.

“But again, 90 per cent of what we do is all about us and I feel that if we can get our game right then we’re going to be hard to beat.”

One advantage they’ll hold over the Great Britian club is the element of travel. The game is set to take place at Abbottstown in Dublin and while a lengthy bus ride awaits the girls, they won’t have to hop on to a plane and travel across the ocean to fulfil the fixture.

“We’re just booking buses, and some of the girls will complain about the early start in the morning but what can you do? Listen, it’s tough enough getting those girls on a bus, imagine getting them to an airport!”