Sleacht Néill camogs have nothing to hide

All-Ireland Club senior Camogie Championship semi-final

Scariff-Ogonnelloe (Clare) v Sleacht Néill (Derry)

Sunday, Donaghmore Ashbourne, 2pm

Sleacht Néill are certain that they are at the same level of preparedness this year as they were ahead of last year’s All-Ireland Championship semi-final.

The Derry club won their third title in a row at the start of 2019, and have put in the work over the summer to make sure that they can capture their fourth All-Ireland title on the trot this year.

They are certain of their abilities because the club have adopted the use statistical analysis to help them achieve their maximum potential.

Three years ago, they started using GPS trackers. Michael Glover has been spearheading the project, and in the last couple of years the management have been able to track how much work the players have been putting in.

“Mickey Glover has done a lot of work with GPS,” said manager Damian McEldowney.

“At this stage we are at the same place where we were last year.

“Our work rate is no different than what it was last year. We know that we have the hard work done. We know exactly where they are at in their preparations.”

And McEldowney explained that the GPS system has actually managed to cut down the amount of training that the team does.

“We are fit to see how much work they are doing, and in some cases we can ease up training if we know that they are at the right level. We don’t have to flog them.Preparations have went very well. We have tried not to change too much from year to year. We have a system that works very well. The GPS gives us a good reading of where we are at.”

The challenge for Sleacht Néill over the past couple of months since they won the Ulster title, was making sure that they could work with their players regularly.

“Their team is made up of players who have different work schedules. Some are nurses, others are students and some are doing shift work. They have set nights of training on Wednesday and Friday and they do their best to have everyone out on those nights.

There are some that have missed all the training. Aisling and Bronagh Ni Caiside are not part of the team at the moment as they have gone travelling.

They are two major losses as that duo played a big part in the club’s success over the past three years.

“They were two big players for us,” McEldowney said.

“But we have players who have come into the team. They know the way that we want to play. That lessens the blow.”

Sleacht Néill’s next test is against Clare and Munster champions Scariff Ogonnelloe.

Their Senior Championship win in October last year was the club’s first ever victory. They beat Newmarket on Fergus by 1-12 to 2-3. Incredibly they were able to go on and capture the Munster title, beating Drom and Inch in the final by 1-7 to 0-8. Clare have only ever won one Provincial title, and that was 30 years ago. So Scariff broke another important record with that win. Marian Rodgers goal-getting seemed to be important in both of those finals, and she could be one to watch.

“We know very little about them. They have a couple of county players. But we don’t know much about them.

“We are not going to get too caught up in worrying about our opposition.”

Sleacht Néill boss McEldowney said that taking consideration of their opponents was not often done in Camogie.

“Camogie is different. It is not like football. You can’t easily find out about the teams that you are playing. It doesn’t get the same publicity as football. We have found that we can just concentrate on ourselves. The girls prefer it that way. And if we need to make changes then we can do it during the game.”

As McEldowney said, they have a system that has worked for the past three years, there is no reason to change it now.

And he also said that there is no reason to change there set up.

“At this stage everyone knows our set up. They know who is going to play where. Shannon will be midfield, Tina will be centre half forward. Aoife will be centre half back and Louise will drop back to help. It won’t be any different.”

And barring a shock, they result won’t be different either as long as Sleacht Néill stay focused.

r.scott@gaeliclife.com