Rovers and Kickhams growth built on strong foundations

CAMOGIE: FBD Insurance County Intermediate Final Preview

KNOCKAVILLA KICKHAMS

V

SHANNON ROVERS

Sunday 14th November

Camogie Grounds, The Ragg

Throw-in @ 12.00pm (E.T.)

By Thomas Conway

When black-and-amber meets red-and-white, you can expect there to be fireworks. That statement is as true to inter-county camogie as it is to inter-county hurling, given the number of epic battles which have taken place between Kilkenny and Cork down through the years.

Whether Knockavilla-Donaskeigh Kickhams and Shannon Rovers will be able to deliver the same pulsating levels of excitement next Sunday will depend on a number of factors, but there’s a reasonable chance that this County Intermediate Camogie Final will go down to the wire.

Should it do so, Shannon Rovers may be better equipped to deal with the situation. They demonstrated their ability to cope in high-pressure scenarios last Saturday week, edging out Borris-Ileigh thanks to a stoppage-time free from marquee forward Aoife McLoughney. It was the former Tipperary player’s ninth point of the afternoon, a reflection of the attacking threat posed by the centre-forward - a threat which Knockavilla will be acutely aware of heading into this county final.

For Rovers’ joint-manager Patrick McLoughney, Sunday’s game will be the culmination of a long and sometimes arduous journey - a season which posed challenges to traditional training schedules and forced both team and management to innovate in terms of their overall approach. Ironically, that process of innovation has created something special within the group, fostering real friendships and reviving a sense of true comradery between the players.

“Well, if you look at our team since the beginning of the year, we met, as a management team, on the 6th of February, and we set up a couple of training groups - pods of players, which allowed them to do their own thing during lockdown,” he said.

“And the players went on Strava, they published their runs every day for a full month, so that everyone was in it together. And then we met up as a group, when it was safe to do so, and we never stopped training throughout the year. We have over ninety sessions done, including matches. And the girls were always at training - they’ve become really good friends, really close as a group. So, I think we’ve built huge team spirit - I think Covid has benefited us in that way.”

The ‘take it one game at a time’ approach is espoused by more or less every manager of every team in every sport in every country. But there’s a reason for that - it works. When Patrick McLoughney speaks about Rovers’ 2021 strategy, it sounds refreshing, rather than simply repetitive. He reveals the nuances of the game-by-game approach, explaining that it allows a team to make small adjustments based on their previous performance, which leads to gradual improvements over the course of a season.

He’s confident that, having learned from their previous outing against Knockavilla, this Shannon Rovers team has the talent and experience to overcome their rivals next Sunday.

“We’ve taken it game by game,” he added.

“And that was our plan since the beginning of the year - we had no targets; our first aim was to win our first game. After that we tried to correct anything that we felt wasn’t right, and we took the same approach to the next game.

“We had a lot of corrections after our last game against Knockavilla, because to be fair to them, they were superb on the day. Anyone who was at that match probably wouldn’t give us a chance in the final, but I know when our girls pull on the Rovers jersey on Sunday, they’ll be a different outfit. They’ll be up to that challenge, they’ll play as best as they can, and they’ll do it for one another.”

Bubbling with ambition

Like Shannon Rovers, Knockavilla-Donaskeigh Kickhams are a team which is infused with youth, and by implication, bubbling with ambition.

A younger cohort of players have definitely helped to invigorate the West Tipp side, setting a new benchmark in terms of energy and work-ethic, but ultimately, the team revolves around senior inter-county stars Eimear Heffernan, Caoimhe McCarthy, and back-to-back All-Star nominee Ereena Fryday. The UL graduate secured her first nomination as a half-forward in 2019, before transitioning into the middle at the beginning of this season and excelling during Tipp’s league and championship campaigns.

The positional switch very obviously gave Fryday a new lease of life, affording her additional freedom and enabling the 28-year-old to utilise her incredible levels of endurance and conditioning.

Nobody is fooled by the fact that, on the team-sheet at least, Knockavilla seem to be deploying her at wing-

forward.

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