Brady bunch hoping to maintain momentum

By Niall Gartland

THE Cavan camogs have massively exceeded expectations on their return to senior intercounty camogie, and manager Philip Brady hopes that they don’t lose momentum at this stage of the game.

After sitting out the entirety of the 2025 season and this year’s league campaign, they announced their return with a bang in the Ulster Intermediate final, claiming a stunning victory over Tyrone.

They’ve also picked up a head of steam in the All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship, making it two-from-two last weekend with a victory over a strongly fancied Armagh side.

To say things are going well would be a hefty understatement, but manager Philip Brady is mindful that they can’t afford to take their eye off the ball ahead of this Saturday’s trip to a winless Kildare.

“I watched them a couple of times this year – they’re a big, strong, physical team. If you only look at their results, you could get a false impression. They’re a good team with quality players. We’re expecting a battle and it usually is at this level. We know it’s going to be tough again, but we’ve taken a lot of belief from the Armagh win.”

“Kildare are fighting for their lives after losing two games.

“It’s a big game for them this weekend, so we know it’ll be a very tough contest. After last weekend, we don’t want to lose – we want to keep pushing on. That’s what we see as progression.”

Brady admits that he didn’t quite know what to expect when Cavan returned to competitive action at this level, but the players didn’t take long to strike up a bond and they’ve produced some really impressive displays. Indeed, they’re now a leading contender for the ultimate prize at this level.

“It’s going very well so far. I didn’t really know what to expect, obviously with there being no team last year and no challenge matches before the Tyrone game.

“We knew we had some very good players in the county, but they’ve bonded well and things have worked out for us so far.”

Cavan’s forward unit clicked into gear last weekend in an impressive win over Armagh. Players like Roisin O’Keeffe and Shanise Fitzsimon have been renowmed camogs for years, and Brady also hails the impact of Aoibhe Conaty, who weighed in with two goals.

“Aoibhe Conaty is only a young player. She’s on the Cavan U23 panel and I watched her once or twice and thought she was really good. She played the first day for our U23s, got taken off, and didn’t feature in the next couple of games – she couldn’t get game time with the U23s.

“I took a chance on her because I thought she was someone we could work with, tried to get something out of her, and thankfully she’s coming good.”