Breen seizes the moment after injury hit year

Mount Leinster Rangers brought to an end quarter of a century of Myshall dominance at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday to win the Senior Camogie Championship.

The first goal scorer, Anna Breen, has had a tough year. Sister to Rachel, the victorious captain, she dislocated her shoulder in January and was only an interested spectator at the Carlow intercounty matches when her friends were playing. She eventually recovered but starting for Rangers was still a little risky as the injury needed time.

“It was tough. It was hard work in the gym. When I got back, I trained as hard as I could. When I got the call, it was what dreams are made of.” 

Anna got the nod at half-time. She was surprised.

“I was shocked to get the call to be honest. I had been training hard so if they needed me for just a half an hour, that was all that mattered.” 

It was a sweet moment for the two sisters to be on the field together when the final whistle sounded.

“Rachel is captain. I am so proud of her. Rachel has been through it as well this year too. With her being captain I was probably not the best company for her either during the year but she had a stormer today.” 

Catherine Kavanagh, the Rangers keeper has won league titles with Carlow. She is the holder of an Ashbourne Cup medal which she won with DCU.

Her two saves in the first half put her in contention for the Player of the Match award. Keeping a clean sheet against Myshall is some achievement too. She scoffed at the suggestion that she could have been in line for this particular award.

“Players of the match is fantastic but as long as we came home with that cup, I didn’t care about anything else. The six backs were unbelievable. Nothing went through them. The forwards were on fire. Ciara, Roisin, Martha. You could name them all. It was such a team performance today which was class,” she said.

Aine Ryan, the Rangers full-back, was marking the Myshall danger player, Ciara Quirke. She did well and limited her rival to two points.

“Me and Ciara are friends off the pitch but I knew I had a job to do. It might not have looked that pretty for the spectators. I might not have hit a ball today, my job was to keep a clean sheet and we almost did that,” she confessed.

It was all of 30 years ago since Marie Coady donned a Rangers jersey for the first time. She has had a superb intercounty career but the senior club championship medal had eluded her.

She works away from home now but the call of Rangers saw her returning as a member of the management team three years ago.

“It is so sweet. We knew we could do it. When I came back, I knew there was something special in this group. We had depth. They seemed to believe in themselves. We put a phenomenal management team together this year and left no stone unturned,” she explained.

“It was all about getting the girls to believe. We knew the hurling was there. We had heartbreak so many times and sometimes it is hard to bring it on the day when you have that extra weight of so many years of disappointment.” 

The Rangers effort never faltered over the hour on Saturday.

“It was the belief. That was what was different. To get the complete performance you have to go for every ball. Everything was done so that the girls could believe in themselves. If they made a mistake, it was about going for the next ball. It is hard to do psychologically. We knew from the off we were in it. We owned the ball. We didn’t convert the chances. We were very comfortable at half-time even though there was only one point in it. This time, it was different. We had left a lot behind us and we knew in the third quarter where we had been turned before that we had a lot of hurling to do and that we had a target.”