All-Ireland Colleges’ Camogie Senior A semi-final replay

Friday  1.30pm in Magherafelt : St Mary’s, Magherafelt v Seamount, Kinvara

A FORTNIGHT ago, St Mary’s, Magherafelt grabbed a dramatic draw in Galway or maybe threw away a chance to progress into a second successive All-Ireland Colleges’ Camogie Senior final. It just depends on which way you look at the game.

St Mary’s manager Raymond Kennedy prefers to look on it as something gained rather than lost.

“Roisin (Cassidy) picked up a second yellow card with 23 or 24 minutes to go, playing against the breeze with only a point between the teams. At that point a draw was going to be a great result.”

“The girls needed to dig in and work hard for the rest of the game and that is what we got from them. Niamh McKee scored an excellent individual goal to put us a point in front and Seamount had to come back for a draw, but they could easily have grabbed a late winner as well!”

Roisin Cassidy is, of course, back in the frame for today’s replay, but what role will the Bellaghy girl get? In the drawn game, she wore No 15 but played as sweeper before being moved up into the forward line where she scored a good point.

St Mary’s should be a little stronger for the replay in the sense that two of the girls went into the drawn game with broken fingers that hadn’t really had time to heal, while full-forward Jackie Donnelly looked a little ring rusty in her first game back after being out since Halloween with a knee injury.

“Yes, we think that all the injuries have cleared up, touch wood,” said Kennedy. “But I’m sure that Seamount will believe that they can improve as well.”

“We are hoping to get a good bit of support from the school community this afternoon, and the girls know how difficult it is to play against a partisan crowd when you go a couple of points down.”

“If we can just get off the mark early, produce the same work-rate as the last day and get a little extra in terms of openings for scores, I think that we can make it. But Seamount will not be handing us anything on a plate, you can be sure of that.”

St Mary’s (possible): U McKeown, M Kearns, M Diamond, B McAllister, F Burke, R Bradley, N Conway, U McCoy, A Craig, E McGuigan, K McLeod capt, N McKee, J Donnelly, C Mulholland, R Cassidy.

Subs : S McCusker, K Wilson, C McAuley, S McElwee, N Kelly, R McAllister, O McGuigan, M Lagan, M McGirr, E O’Kane, B Kilpatrick, R Doyle, A McAuley

Seamount : A Helebert, N Murphy, E Stafford, S Connolly capt, T Bermingham, E Helebert, L Helebert, N Keane, C Murphy, J O’Dea, C Dolan, D Walsh, K McMahon, C Walsh, R Helebert.