Michael Corcoran talks to Loughgiel’s camogie manager, Conor Higgins, ahead of Sunday’s Ulster Camogie semi-final against Clonduff.

Sunday 3^rd of November will witness a mass exodus of Shamrock supporters, players and management heading into the heart of Down camogie on the edge of the Mourne mountains for their Ulster camogie semi-final clash against 2022 All Ireland Intermediate winners, Clonduff.

Ballyholland, Mayobridge, Fontenoys and Kilcoo would factor as neighbouring clubs, nipping at the heels of Clonduff on an annual basis, which helps to keep Clonduff focused. But will that focus blur just enough to offer Loughgiel another Ulster camogie final? Let’s see if Loughgiel’s camogie manager, Conor Higgins, can help us to figure that out, as the Saffron Gael caught up with him for a chat.

Conor’s involvement with camogie in Loughgiel goes back some years. A one-time native of Glenravel, Loughgiel drew him in initially as a spectator of his now-wife’s camogie games, then moved into underage management of both hurling and camogie. The step up to seniors came when Benny Dillon took up tenureship as the camogie manager and Conor joined him in management, both seeing the camogie squad having a run and a narrow miss in the All Ireland final of ‘22, coincidentally appearing as the second game in a double header, where Clonduff played their Intermediate final, beating James Stephens from Kilkenny.

The recent Antrim Camogie win sits well in his locker along with the wealth of experience gained over the years. These days, as camogie moves the bar of performance continuously up, it will take most of that experience to keep his squad moving in an upward direction, but he tells us that the squad is amazingly well motivated and competitive. Losing isn’t in their nature.

When asked to sum up this year’s results and in particular how does he feel about relinquishing the league and Feis cups, Conor candidly replied “Put it this way, we are where we wanted to be. The league was used to blood some of our younger players as we were aware of having lost somewhere in the region of sixteen players over the last few years. On top of that, we had something like nine players on the county panel so that hurt us when the Feis came around this year. But overall, we had a good season taking those things into consideration.”

Despite a reduction in silverware this year, the squad have an amazing county record of eleven consecutive wins. We were curious to know how Conor and the backroom team managed to keep the squad hungry for success given that ‘Eleven in a row’ could generate some complacency? “Well, as I said previously, the girls are self-motivated to an amazing level. Generally, when the county finishes, that’s when we come alive. The desire to do well, win, that starts to build and you can feel it.”

Sunday’s game takes the Loughgiel squad deep into Down but the panel are no strangers to the journey. Conor reminds us that “Clonduff and Liatroim have taken turns to enagage in challenge games and friendly games in the past. Don’t forget, we played a Down team, Liatroim, in last year’s final. And of course, Loughgiel met Clonduff this year in the seven aside Mary Coulter tournament in Ballyholland, which incidentally Loughgiel won.”

We asked Conor could the team have harvested anything from that encounter, given that it was also well represented by Down clubs, “That was a great day out. To be honest, we saw it as a non-county team building day out. We let some of our younger girls take a role with no pressure and at the end of the day, the feedback was good and we’d entertain a return if invited next year.”

This year, Clonduff is among the newer names coming through on their hopeful journeys to Ulster success this year, the other being Swatragh, who managed to beat Slaughtneil in what many held as an upset in the Derry final. We were curious to know if Conor had been ruminating over these results. “To be honest, we aren’t looking beyond Sunday’s game and that’s, I guess, how it should be. I will say though, that it comes as no surprise that Clonduff are through to an Ulster game, as they were ready from as far back as their intermediate win but they were hampered by events closer to home. Yeah, Clonduff were ready for the step up.”

Over the years, we’ve witnessed the personal commitment from players in terms of training, match and strength & conditioning attendance being admirable if not a display of exceptional dedication, especially in the face of personal commitments, so we were interested to know from Conor, is there anything the wider community of followers and interested parties can do to compliment that effort? “I hold the view that this group and camogie in general doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. More promotion of the games is a good starting point and having a joined-up approach to big events gives the occasion the sense of prestige it deserves. Last year we had a double header at the Athletic grounds. We played Liatroim in our Ulster final followed by the men’s hurling Ulster final. That arrangement worked for everyone and was very well received by all accounts.”

If Loughgiel are successful on Sunday, that sets up a final with Swatragh, who as we have already said, caused an upset by beating Slaughneil. Would Conor be drawn on that to comment? “Well, you probably won’t be surprised but it is the truth when I say we aren’t looking that far ahead.” Conor wastes no time in adding, “ Ask me that question on Sunday if the game goes our way.”

Sunday’s game proves to be a special encounter and if the weather forecast doesn’t change, the day should prove ideal for a game of camogie and the challenge will be to remain focussed on the field and not to be distracted by the wonderful countryside.

Plan your journey in advance and if you want to avoid car sickness, take the slightly longer way round via Newry, Mayobridge and Hilltown. But if you are up for it, the scenic route might just tempt you to stop for a panoramic photo with the Mournes as the backdrop. Whatever you do, please travel safely.