By Niall Gartland

EARLY on Saturday afternoon at Abbotstown, Aoibhinn Daly will have the honour of leading out the Éire Óg camogs on All-Ireland final day.

Standing in their way of the ultimate prize is Louth side St Kevin’s, but whatever happens, it’s been one hell of a journey to this point. One unprecedented title win after another, basically.

A Bridie McMenamin Shield success in the depths of last winter was followed by a Tyrone Intermediate title – their primary objective this year. That was swiftly parked and they showed immense resilience to scythe their way through the provincial arena before booking their ticket to Saturday’s All-Ireland showdown.

Daly, who co-captains the team with the injured Ailise Coyle, says that their run of results has forged an unbreakable bond in the team and hopefully their efforts all come to fruition this weekend.

“We’ve been in a lot of finals from last December to this December, so we’re getting used to the big days – and thank God we’re performing on the big days as well.

“Winning the Bridie McMenamin for the first time was massive for us, and we came into this year with a lot of confidence that we could push on further.”

In last year’s Bridie McMenamin final, Daly contributed 10 points of their overall tally of 1-13. This season the scoring burden has eased somewhat as Éire Ógs have developed into an even more well-rounded side.

“We definitely have a good spread of scorers. Niamh (McElduff) has been brilliant, we all know about Sorcha (Gormley) and then there’s younger players coming in and doing really well – the likes of Neassa McElroy and Aoife Grogan. Those young girls are bringing a bit more energy to the team.”

Daly, who is joined by sister Michaela on the Éire Óg team, believes that they’ve been thoroughly road-tested en route to this point, and that their semi-final win over London side Fr Murphy’s wasn’t as comfortable as the final scoreline suggested.

“I don’t think our margin of victory really reflected how the game went. They were hard-hitting and skilful players, but we knew we had that never-say-die attitude and got the scores at the right time. It was an All-Ireland semi-final at the end of the day and we got nothing easy.”

Concluding, Daly expressed gratitude for the management set-up leading the team on the line.

“There’s Declan (Sherlock), Bríd (Uí Dhonnghaile) and Brendan Gallagher – he has two twins playing on the team. They’ve been involved for a few years and have been building us towards this point, because they knew the potential we had and believed in us. We have great support in the stands as well and it’s great to reward them as well.”