O’Grady strengthens his hand for tough campaign

TYRONE camogie boss Paul O’Grady knows it will be a steep learning curve for his side in National League Division 3A, but they’ve pulled out all the stops in the off-season to make sure that they have the very best players at their disposal.

The Tyrone camogs had a wonderful 2024 season and went unbeaten through the league before claiming the Division Four title and Ulster Junior Championship.

The All-Ireland campaign was a different kettle of fish, but they were playing a higher calibre of team, and that’s something they’re going to have to contend with more regularly in their forthcoming Division 3A campaign, commencing against Roscommon this Saturday at Garvaghey.

But their returning manager O’Grady is looking forward to the road ahead, and they’ve bolstered an already strong panel with a number of new additions, including a few more representatives from All-Ireland Junior B Club Champions Naomh Treasa.

“We’ve pulled in a lot more players, we did a big trawl of the county during the summer and have brought players back who were previously part of the county scene as well as a number of girls who are entirely new to it.

“What we found last year is that we had a really good team but we fell short towards the end of the year when we’d a couple of injuries.

“But we’ve strengthened our team in every sector at the training, we have massive numbers at training and it’s going well.”

On his Naomh Treasa contingent, he added: “They’re a quality team with some unbelievable players and we’re lucky this year that we’ve added a few more of those girls into the team – Aine McNulty, Beth Jones and Grainne Rafferty. Then we’ve got the likes of Cara Little and Roisin McErlean who are already a huge part of our set-up, they’re lethal players up front.”

Remaining in position as joint-captains of the team are Siobhan Donnelly and Una McCann, two supremely disciplined players who set the highest standards for themselves and others around them.

“We thought about this as a management, wondering if we’d give the captaincy to someone else this year, but Siobhan and Una did such a great job last year.

“They put in a massive amount of work inside and outside training, and they’re the ones that nobody wants to match up against.

“We’re not looking at the captaincy as necessarily a central role on the field of play, we’re looking at it in terms of who will be able to lead the team around them all year, and those two girls certainly fit the bill.”

Tyrone will be eyeing up a possible opening day win against Connacht side Roscommon, but O’Grady recognises that it’s very unlikely to be a walk in the park like some of last year’s league encounters.

“They’re a very good team, we played Cavan last year in the quarter-finals of the Junior championship, and Roscommon played Armagh in the second game, they were very solid.

“I know from personal experience that Roscommon hurlers are a dogged team and they’re the exact same in the camogie. They have a football background so they have strong runners, and I think they’ll be one of the strongest teams in the whole league.

“We’re looking at finishing in the top four because of the way the league is set up. The top four go through to the semi-finals and the bottom two play off in the Division Four final.

“We’re not going to go out thinking we’re going to hammer Roscommon, but we want to get a good team and see what way we’re shaping up, as this year the games are going to be a lot harder than before.”