"This is some achievement"
The Carlow under 16 camogie team raise the trophy in celebration after their win Photo: Pat Ahern
Carlow coach, Anthony O’Brien, said this was one of the best days of his life after watching his team beat Down in the U16B All-Ireland Camogie Championship final. He watched as the players were hugged and congratulated by friends and family members.
“It is an honour. This is four years in the making. The amount of work being carried out is phenomenal. This tops it off. This is some achievement,” he said.
Having won the Shield final last season the groundwork was being carried out for quite some time now. O’Brien confirmed as much.
“I think it is fantastic. We set out in September to get this going. We had an idea that we had a good team. I told you in the preview that we played in Leinster A. That showed up today. There is physical strength. We have a committed squad. We have fantastic individuals on the team but we are a squad. The subs who came on were as good as anybody else,” the coach confirmed.
He said the game-plan which the players had discussed before the game unfolded as they had hoped.
“The early goal settled us. In previous games, we have had a very strong start. We said we didn’t want to be chasing the game. The start was key. We play to our strength. Our strength is speed and skill.” Then the players who came on all contributed.
“Amy Farrell is fantastic. We had her on the bench as a dynamic sub to bring on,” noted O’Brien.
“Girls threw themselves on the line when it was needed. I couldn’t be prouder of them to be honest.”
I am over the moon. I am so happy. It is the first time we have got into an All-Ireland B final and it is just an honour to be playing with this team. We are so close. We are like another family. We get on with ourselves really well. We put whatever happens off the field behind us. A lot of us are friends at school as well. It was a big change after half-time as we hadn’t got the wind. We had to knuckle down.
Grainne Grennan’s early goal was a boost and helped us settle. Everyone was calm enough and kept it going. It means the world for us.
We didn’t panic near the end when they were coming back at us. We kept going. We kept tipping away and we are going to enjoy this now.
