- DERRY manager Ciaran Cunningham has expressed his frustration that the draw for the Intermediate Championship was not taken live over a Zoom call.
- Cunningham said that he would have preferred to see the draw on Sunday rather than have had to wait until Monday of this week to hear which team they had to play.
- “I think it would have taken three minutes to do the draw over Zoom. I am really disappointed in the draw. We won our three matches and we are in a quarter-final, yet there is a team that lost a match that is in a semi-final.
- “I was disappointed that the draw was done on a Sunday but we wouldn’t find out till the Monday. We won our three matches so we deserved to be in a semi-final.”
- Galway and Kilkenny are through to the semi-finals. While Kilkenny qualified after beating Cork, they lost to Antrim in Group One. Antrim play Kerry in the quarter-finals while Derry were drawn against Meath, who beat Carlow and Dublin in Group One of the Championship. They know Meath well having played and lost to them in last year’s competition.
- “I am frustrated that we are in a quarter-final but the other side of it is that we get a chance to get revenge against Meath after losing to them last year. We have a chance to get revenge which is good.
- “I know we have a stronger team this year. We have brought three Sleacht Néill girls in, Louise Dougan, Shannon Graham and Therese Mallon. Those three players are immense and they would grace any senior team.
- “I only brought them into the team recently and they have settled in very well. That has been important. We went to Carrick down to the match and it was good for the team to socialise together. There is a good rapport between them.
- “With no club games because of the split season it has been good for them as well.”
- Cunningham said that they do have to make improvements on their performance last year.
- “I think we need to be more physical. We need more 50-50 balls. That was the key last year. Plus last year we dropped 14 balls into the ’keeper with no one in round her. We need to be more clinical, and we need to be ready for the breaking ball.
- “We have improved this year in terms of how direct we are.
- “When we play a ball we play a ball for a reason. We are playing a quicker brand of camogie, we have hit 1-19, 2-17 and 1-17. You can’t hit those scores while playing slow camogie.”
- One of the Derry panel, Nicole Nugent, won’t be available to play this weekend.