By Niall McCoy

THE beauty of a new modernised world is that opposition analysis has become a whole lot easier. The downside of it, as Carrick ladies manager Gerry Winters can attest to, is that it can show just how big of a challenge in lying in wait.

That’s the story for the Carrickmacross ladies ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland Junior semi-final against Dublin outfit Naomh Jude. The Leinster champions faced British champions Tír na nÓg in the quarter-final earlier this month and Winters and his management team saw them blast home a hugely-impressive 9-18.

That’s not to say that the Monaghan champions will be bowing down in their first foray into the All-Ireland series.

In fact, a look at their results en-route to Ulster glory suggests that they should be a real sticky wicket for Naomh Jude.

After a comfortable quarter-final win over Enniskillen Gaels, Carrick really had to dig in to see off Bredagh’s second string and Moortown in the semi-final and final. Their winning margin across those two games was four points.

“Four months ago we had never won a Senior Championship at any stage in our history so we just cannot wait for this game,” said Winters. “I’d like to think we’ll give them something to worry about as well.

“This group of girls have always had that character inside them. They’ll always bounce back from defeats and they always seem to finish games strongly.

“In our semi-final against Bredagh we were behind at half time but they didn’t score in the second half.

“Moortown led from start to finish basically in the final but we kept plugging away and we kept plugging away.”

Winters is expecting an even stiffer challenge at the St Margaret’s GAA club in Dublin (1pm).

“It’s going to a big, big lift in standards from Ulster,” he said.

“Okay, they had it all their own way Tír na nÓg but we’ve seen them throughout Leinster and they came through a really tough provincial championship.

“They went to Meath (Skryne) and won and Wexford (Kilanerin) and won and then they beat the Longford Intermediate champions (Colmcille) in the final, who were playing junior at provincial level, and they have been putting up big scores.

“Some of the girls coming off the bench for them have contributed but it’s going to be a massive, massive challenge.

“Our analysis team has been putting stuff together on them and we’ll get looking at that.

“Like the games in Ulster, and I know it’s a cliché, you are really focussing on yourself.

“Every manager says that, but when you go into a new competition all you can do is make sure you’re good to go.”

One issue for Carrick is that their last competitive game came all the way back in mid-November when they defeated Tyrone’s Moortown, and Winters is hoping that they are able to shake off the rustiness early in the game.

“The Ulster campaign was over done with for us by November 14,” he said.

“We knew from the outset that it was going to be a long wait whereas after Monaghan we were straight back out to focus on Ulster.

“After Ulster we took three weeks off, then did one night a week in December and were back at it again at the start of January.

“We’re really excited for it.”