By Niall Gartland

A CONCERTED effort at improving the conditioning levels of the Antrim camogs is paying off in spades.

They’ve won their opening two Division 1B encounters, overcoming both Wexford and Limerick, and joint-manager Martin Coulter attributes their excellent performances to the hard work going on behind the scenes.

Now in his second year at the helm alongside Carl McCormick, Martin says that last year’s league encounter against Dublin was a major wake-up call. Antrim have plenty of talent in their ranks, but were lacking in the physical stakes and that’s something they’re really targeting.

“When Dublin came out on the pitch, you could see the size comparison in terms of physique, we knew we were a mile behind in terms of fitness and conditioning.

“That’s part of the reason we started back early this season, and Cormac Collins has done a fantastic job in terms of their fitness.

“He takes full responsibility for that side of things, he chases the girls up on it and takes full ownership. That takes it out of myself and Carl’s hands.

“Our fitness and physicality has probably been the deciding factor in our games so far. It’s still early in the season but the girls are in really good shape.”

Antrim were missing a few familiar names in their win over Limerick at the weekend with Dervla Cosgrove, Roisin Kelly and Maeve Kelly unfit to play. Coulter says we should see them back in the near future, however.

“We’d be targeting them to come back in around the league game against Down – I think this game against Wetmeath will come too soon for Roisin and Maeve, but Devla should be alright, she just had a small illness so she should be available. We’ll have a week’s break before the Down game so we’re hopeful the other two girls will be back for that one.”

This Saturday they host a Westmeath side that came out second best against Down in their most recent league match, but Coulter isn’t taking them for granted and thinks appetite and hard work will determine the result as much as talent does.

“It’s National League camogie in February, we’ve had two games to date and at the moment it’s just about development. There’s not too much fancy or nice camogie, it’s about battling and fitness levels at this stage, so we’ll see how we get on and we can’t just expect to turn up and win. The good thing is that we have them at home so hopefully we’ll have good support behind us.”