Above – Antrim joint manager Chris Scullion with his partner Amy Bennington who is PowerNI Senior Marketing Manager

TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Junior Final Preview

By: Niall Kelly

For the third time in six years, Antrim will contest in the All-Ireland Junior Football showpiece on the hallowed turf of Croke Park where they will lock horns with Carlow on this occasion. Bainisteoir, Chris Scullion, is relishing the prospect of a huge day on Sunday and has been delighted with his side’s preparations and remarked how the mood in the camp has been buoyant.

“It’s been building up nicely towards our final training session on Thursday night. Things are going really well and we’ve been preparing well, training very hard over the last two weeks since the semi final and we are really looking forward to it. Build up has been really good and we’ve done our homework as best we can. The girls are really focused and determined and we’re all really looking forward to it.”

Champions in 2022 thanks to a monumental effort in their replayed final against Fermanagh, the Saffrons know what All Ireland success tastes like, but it is perhaps last year’s bitter defeat to Louth which provides that little more impetus to replicate the glories of four years ago.

“We really analysed last year’s final and we just weren’t happy with the performance that we put in. We were in a similar position to what Carlow are in this year, going through the season unbeaten but ironically put our worst performance of the season that year in Croke Park. So yeah, there are a few wee wrongs that we want to put right there.”

However, Scullion insists that the lessons learnt from last year have only served to galvanise the team further and have aided their preparations for Sunday.

“We now have the experience of last year which I definitely think has helped us. It seems to have even helped around our management team. We know what to expect now going into Croke Park, we know what it’s about.”

The Glenavy native lauded his squad’s ability and believes they have the perfect mix of experienced heads and youthful exuberance to get the job done.

“It is a new group. We had around fourteen from last year still remaining within the panel and brought a few new faces on board as well. We’ve Hanna Donaghy whose only just turned 19, Anna McGarry and Lara McNicholl, who won an All-Ireland school’s title, Aoibheann Monaghan, still in school as well, whose popped up with a good few scores. All these girls have had good success and experience from underage and you can see them taking that into senior football”

The return of Orlaith Prenter to the panel is sure to be an ace of the sleeve of the Antrim management and Scullion is fully aware of the impact she has had and the potent threat she poses for the Carlow defence.

“We heard Orlaith could be returning from Australia and reached out a bit earlier in the year around Christmas time to see if she’d be potentially interested in coming back to the fold and she told us she’d have that conversation when she got back in Ireland. We then put it to the girls and asked them would they be comfortable with Orlaith coming in at this stage of the year and they all said yes straight away. She shows her ability every game. The first match we brought her on in the last ten minutes against Longford, she scored four points straight away. She then hit four in the semi-final as well. She lends a lot of experience and talks to the other girls as well about different tactics we’re trying to implement and why we’re trying to do it. They can obviously look to her for that wee bit of guidance as well.”

There can be little doubt that Antrim have flourished in recent years and that LGFA within the county has gone from strength to strength. Scullion hopes to capitalise on this growth and is keen for Antrim to compete at Intermediate level.

“If we look at it, we’ve beaten or been very close to beating three of the last four finalists from Intermediate level so we know that it is a level that we can compete at and we want to get there to drive on especially moving up into Division Two next year. We really want to get out of Junior division and get stuck into Intermediate level and see where that can take us.”

Everyone at the Saffron Gael wish the girls every bit of luck for Sunday and hopefully they can come back up the M1/N1 with the trophy aloft. Aointroim abú!