‘We don’t let up’, says Connaughton as Raharney clinch Leinster title
While his troops never looked remotely like they would lose their Leinster junior ‘A’ club crown against Celbridge’s second string in Clane yesterday afternoon, Raharney camogie manager Padraic Connaughton was still delighted to have another piece of silverware to bring back Deelside way.
Erin Core netted a hat-trick and Aoife Doherty was player of the match with 2-2, as Raharney ran out 8-14 to 0-2 winners against the Kildare girls.
But a 36-point win needs very little embellishment, and it was understandable that the winning bainisteoir reflected more on their very close encounter in the semi-final a week earlier, writes Gerry Buckley.
In this regard, he opined: “Last week was intense (against Naomh Bríd of Offaly) and it probably mentally got us ready for today. At the second water break last week, we were two points down and under massive pressure. I went in at the time to give a speech and Aoife O’Malley said, ‘we’ll finish them off now’, and I skipped back to the dugout.
“When a manager hears that, it is some lift and we outscored them by 1-4 to 0-1 in the last quarter. That shows where you are. If we were under pressure today, I still have no doubts that we would have won the match.”
Connaughton had some sympathy for Saturday’s defeated finalists. “It was unfortunate for Celbridge that they had no semi-final as Killyon pulled out, and that hampers preparation,” he said.
“But I don’t think it mattered as we were very intent on retaining our cup. We were nervous in the first few minutes, and that’s to be expected. But we went for the jugular early. It was 2-2 to no score after six minutes and we are very pacey in the full forward line. And we’ll need to be next weekend.
“I said to them after the game there now that we didn’t win the game today, we won it last December when we were training. We don’t let up on anyone, because we can’t. We have a standard there and we send subs in and today again our subs put up their hands. It’s going to be difficult to pick a team the next day.”
He took the opportunity to wish Fiona Leavy well on the day of her nuptials. “Obviously, we were missing Fiona on her wedding day and she was a big loss. About now she’s hitched! She might wish she was here, but we wish her the best of luck,” he said, to the amusement of all in earshot.
“We are out again next weekend against the Ulster champions and the two teams in that final today are both serious outfits. But we are a serious outfit as well and we’ll be ready as we always are,” he concluded.