Fay hopes Tyrone camogs have turned a corner

By Niall Gartland

TYRONE camog Reagan Fay hopes that they’re back on the right track ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship group stage clash against Armagh at Edendork.

The Red Hands have made strong progress in recent years, but they hit a bump in the road in the shape of back-to-back defeats before bouncing back with last weekend’s resounding victory over Wicklow.

Tyrone lost out to a Cavan team fielding in their first competitive match all year in the Ulster Intermediate Championship final, and their opening day encounter against Roscommon in the All-Ireland race didn’t go to plan either.

So last weekend’s win over Wicklow came as a very welcome shot in the arm as they get set to take on familiar foes Armagh this Saturday.

And Reagan Fay makes no bones about it – the Red Hands knew they had to get their act together and fast.

“As a team, nobody really performed well on the day against Cavan. I’m not sure what it was – nerves, or maybe it was because we hadn’t played Cavan all year and didn’t know what they were going to bring. But it was definitely a poor performance all round.

“We tried to get the heads together for the Roscommon game, but it didn’t go to plan and I don’t know what happened there either.

“We sat down during the week before the Wicklow game and re-evaluated everything. We were like, ‘Right girls, if we don’t perform now, our chance is gone.’

“We brought the hard work and intensity against Wicklow and came away with a really good result.”

As someone who plays her club camogie with Eglish near the border with Armagh, Fay knows plenty about this Saturday’s opponents. Indeed, one of her club colleagues is Ciara Geoghegan, who has recently returned to the Armagh fold after taking time out to start a family. Then there’s the fact that these two teams meet regularly on the intercounty circuit. Armagh won their league meeting earlier this season by 4-11 to 2-10, but there’s no sense that there’s a significant gulf between the sides.

Fay commented: “If you had asked me a couple of years ago how I’d feel about playing Armagh, I wouldn’t have been confident. But Tyrone camogie as a whole has really pushed on – we’re now pushing the top teams like Armagh. We played them in the league and there wasn’t that much in it.

“Ciara is back playing for Armagh, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. If we can bring our ‘A’ game, hopefully we’ll push them all the way.”

It’s the beginning of a crucial period for Tyrone as they aim to push towards a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

“With Cavan beating Armagh, the championship is a bit more open now. We’ll need to win three games to make it through. Armagh are first up, Cavan are strong and Kildare are always hard to beat, so we’ve three really tough games ahead of us.”