Éire Ógs bid for special back-to-back

THE Éire Ógs are making massive strides on the camogie front and they are just 60 minutes away from back-to-back provincial titles.

They claimed their first ever Bridie McMenamin title last season and they’ve already shown they’re more than capable of competing at a higher grade, qualifying for Saturday’s Ulster Junior ‘B’ final against Armagh side Derrynoose.

In between times, they also won their first ever Tyrone Intermediate title, so they’re riding the crest of a wave and they’ll hope that palpable sense of momentum will help drive them to a second successive provincial title.

Their manager Declan Sherlock said target number one this year was the Tyrone Championship, and now that box has been ticked, it’s all about making their mark in the province.

“Last year we won the Bridie McMenamin for the first time in the history of the club. There were great celebrations but when we got together at the start of this season, we wanted to have a new goal instead of just plodding away.

“That goal was to win an intermediate in Tyrone, and we didn’t look beyond that. We beat both Dungannon and Derrylaughan in the league, and that was a big deal for us, and then we came out on the right side of a four-point win against Derrylaughan in the county final.

“Now we find ourselves in the Ulster final for the second year in a row, at two different grades, so it’s a very exciting time for the club.”

The Carrickmore-based side qualified for the final against Derrynoose with a hard-earned victory over Cavan representatives Crosserlough.

They came from 2-3 to 0-6 down at half time with Niamh McElduff starring with six points, three in each half.

Other players to watch out for this weekend are Aoibhinn Daly and Sorcha Gormley, who was player of the match for the Tyrone ladies in their All-Ireland Intermediate final win earlier in the season.

“Crosserlough was a tough game for us. It can be difficult at this time of year – the ground has got a bit soft, there’s not much bounce of the ball. But it’s the same for everyone and we just have to adapt to the conditions.

“The girls dug really deep, it was a bit of a slug-fest. We played against the wind in the first half, then scored another six points after the break. We’d have liked to have scored more, but we restricted them to just one point from a free in the second half, so our defence was very miserly which was good.”