Derry Ladies' All-Ireland journey starts this weekend

TG4 All Ireland Junior Football Championship   |   Derry v London   |   Sunday 12pm   |   Ballymaguigan

THE 2024 All-Ireland Championships were launched in Croke Park on Tuesday afternoon last with 33 teams represented, all hoping and dreaming they can be crowned champions come August.

For Derry that journey of hope begins in Ballymaguigan on Sunday afternoon (12noon) when they welcome London for their opening group game. It is the first of four games the Oakleaf girls will have in their group with a home fixture against Carlow and two away days in Fermanagh and Sligo to come later.

The sides met just under a year ago at the same stage, the opening game of the campaign in Ruislip, won by the home side 2-12 to 1-4. London got the perfect start with a goal from the penalty spot from Beatrice Casey and a second goal from the excellent Roisin Considine had them in control by the interval.

What could turn out an advantage for Derry this time is that not only have they home advantage but also the fact this will be London’s first game of the year, having not played in the league.

Derry, while only winning one game against Kilkenny have that game time behind them. However, they are coming off the back of a heavy defeat to Fermanagh in the Ulster final two weeks ago, a game the management will have worked on regarding what went wrong that day and learned a lot about their side.

While defeated they can take some positives with the substitutions helping towards a better second half performance so it is likely players such as Katy Holly, Leah McGonagle, Ciara McGurk and Cara Donnelly, may be pushing for a starting place.

The concession of goals will have given Paddy O’Brien and Damien McCaffrey the most concerns so they will be out to stop that against London. Derry struggled to gain possession from their own kickouts which put them on the back foot.

The loss of Steelstown’s Aoife McGough during that Fermanagh game with what looked a hamstring injury may rule her out of Sunday’s encounter, a big loss for her leadership and as their defensive anchor.

With just victories over Kilkenny in the last two years, confidence and belief that they are good enough could be the biggest obstacle Derry face in each game they take to the field. They have showed at club level with both Steelstown and Lavey winning Ulster club titles last year that the calibre of player in the county is good enough.

Derry Ladies will play four group games, against London, Carlow, Fermanagh and Sligo.

Obviously, a number of those players play county camogie and are not available but they have shown in games, despite defeat, that they can gain success. A win on Sunday would be huge for this side, mainly for that belief that they can win. A huge amount of work has gone into underage over the last number of years, and slowly they will begin to filter through.

Preparations

For now, it is about the panel available and putting right what they can from the Fermanagh outing. London will have had the opportunity to have watched that game so will have their plan to punish Derry. The home side will know a little about London from last year, but very seldom are the same players available year in year out so it may be somewhat a different team this time.

Derry can only prepare their game plan and hope they can turn over the visitors. Team captain Joanne Corr will lead her side out on her home pitch. They will be looking huge displays from the midfield pairing of Blaithin Donnelly and Annie Kilpatrick.

Emma Doherty will come back into defence while Orla McGeough who missed out the last day due to netball could be available and if so that would be a massive boost in the scoring front. Erin Doherty, also on her home pitch has the pace to cause plenty of problems while Megan Devine and Dara McKeever can row in with huge scores.

They missed a number of goal chances the last day, they can’t afford that again and they must stop the concession of them at the other end of they are to get their All-Ireland campaign off to the perfect start.