Captain Claffey looking for ladies to bounce back

Westmeath Senior Ladies Football captain Fiona Claffey is hoping to bounce back from a 'nightmare start' against Dublin in the Leinster final, and get back on track against Galway this Sunday - at the time of writing the venue and time had not been confirmed.

The Lake County face into their first match of the group stages of the All-Ireland Series, but for the Tribeswomen, they come into this game with great momentum.

Firstly, they delivered a fifth Connacht title in six years, with a replay win over Mayo, and although falling 1-8 to 0-1 behind against Kerry in their All-Ireland Series opener against Kerry in Portlaoise last Saturday, they bounced back to score 1-11 unanswered and eventually claim a four-point win.

“We had a bit of a nightmare start against Dublin in the sense that Kelly-Boyce Jordan got sin-binned and Sarah Dillon went off injured, so we had two big losses straight away. Claffey said.

“We held it together well keeping Dublin scoreless for nearly 20 minutes, which is obviously a good thing in itself. I suppose we let them in then easily for a couple of goals, and ultimately that's the difference in the game.

“They got four goals, and I think for all four they ran through us a bit easy, so we'll be a bit disappointed to have let them get those goals, because ultimately that was the difference in the end.

“The standard of Dublin is incredible and to keep that standard and pace that we had in the back-line for that long – there is a point where you do let up a bit and I think that's what happened to us.

“We obviously trained very hard – we had 12 weeks between league and Championship, and we did a lot of work on fitness, but Dublin have just such a high standard and a high pace, that I guess that's what got us in the end.”

It's the second year of the current Championship structure, which includes a round-robin group format, before teams advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Claffey says it works well, particularly when there's just a two-team Leinster Championship at present.

“We have a very, very tough group,” she said.

“I watched the Galway-Mayo Connacht final replay, and Galway are absolutely flying. They really are in great form at the moment.

“We know we have a big tough task against us with them.

“Kerry are building up again. They had a bit of trouble last year, but now this year they are after re-building and they are a really strong side.

“I think we are possibly away to Kerry too, so it's going to be really tough on their home patch.

“We have it all to do, it's going to be a really tough group, but all we can do is focus on each game and give it our best.”

The road to Croke Park, is slightly shorter this year with the news that the All-Ireland Ladies SFC semi-finals will be held there for the first time.

“That's brilliant to hear and I think it gives every team a bit of motivation that it is realistic to get an opportunity to play in Croke Park,” Claffey said.

“It's very, very hard to get to an All-Ireland final, while it's more achievable to get to an All-Ireland semi-final, and I think it will be a great motivation for all of the teams to hear that.”

Along with the meeting of Westmeath and Galway this weekend, Ladies Football fans in Westmeath are also in for a treat on Saturday. TEG Cusack Park in Mullingar plays host to a Senior double header, with Donegal facing Tyrone at 1.45, followed by Cork taking on Cavan at 3.30.