We know we have the talent, says Armagh camogie ace Donnelly

All-Ireland Premier Junior Camogie Championship – Round One
Limerick v Armagh
Saturday, Buff GAA Limerick, 2pm

By Shaun Casey

SATURDAY’S showdown with Limerick is a repeat of the 2021 All-Ireland quarter final, which Armagh won thanks to an inspirational performance from Ciara Donnelly.

The Eglish star recorded 0-12 of Armagh’s 1-16 and Donnelly hopes her side can once again get the better of Munster ladies.

“I haven’t heard too much about Limerick from their league performances. I know they didn’t come out of the group but with those seconds teams, you can never underestimate them,” she said.

“It was probably the same situation last year; they were in the other group in the Championship, and we maybe thought we had enough to do us, but that game was a real dogfight.

“I think we went seven or eight points down in the first half, so that was a real character-building game, that we were able to overcome that and come out with a win.”

Armagh reached the All-Ireland final last year, for the second season in succession, but lost out to Wexford. The aim for the Orchard County is to go one step further in 2022.

“I think the way things finished last year; nobody was happy with the outcome. Wexford beating us for the fourth time in the one season, it’s a tough one to swallow.

“We’ve shown that we can mix it with the likes of the Wexford’s and even Carlow, who are playing in Division Two and at Intermediate, we beat them last year and we beat them this year in the league semi-final.

“We know that the talent’s there and the girls are looking forward to it and I think we’re just hoping we can get that one step further. There’s a good majority of the squad that were there last year and we all have that fire in the belly to get over the line.”

The Orchard County have already picked up one piece of silverware when they became Intermediate Ulster champions for the second year in a row, beating Antrim 0-13 to 0-6.

“The Antrim we played this year was a much different team than last year and I suppose the competitive aspect of it really helped us and probably made this one so much sweeter.

“The hope is now that we can push on and maybe challenge at senior next year. We sort of held back moving up this year, I’m not sure why, but that’ll be the aim next year to play the likes of the Downs and the Antrims and the Derrys and see how we fair against that challenge.”

“The league, we were slow starters. Getting beat by Cavan on the first day out was maybe the nail in our coffin for the league but we don’t look back on that, dwelling on it or anything.

“We used the Ulster campaign as a steppingstone towards the championship. We’re hoping just to keep that momentum going right throughout the championship.

“Hopefully we can learn from our mistakes the last day out. Even though we won, there’s still plenty to improve on. So, we’re just working towards that and hoping for a good group stage.”

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