From heartbreak to history for Drom Camogie
By Joe Scully
Drom & Inch manager Matthew McGrath was delighted with his sides character and resilience shown in securing a fifth Tipperary Senior Camogie Championship title in a row on Saturday following victory over Clonoulty/Rossmore.
Speaking in the aftermath of his sides one point won where they had to withstand a second half revival from their opponents, he said: “We started the second half fairly well, but we didn’t get enough scores on the board..
“Clonoulty to their credit the last couple of years have been phenomenal and we knew they were going to push us all the way”.
“We trusted our group and I think even the bench coming on made a big difference to us. It was only a point in the finish, but it could have been a draw or anything, but we were delighted to get the win.
“Goals have been a feature of our play for us all year, we got the two today and probably could have got one or two more but a clean sheet the last day and one today was probably the telling factor.”
“Their defence held out in the second half, and we didn’t concede a goal so you will always go a long way in big championship games like today and that proved to be the point, and I suppose our ability to score goals too is a big factor,”
Speaking on the five-in-a-row achievement, it was something at the back of their minds but not a focus admitted the Drom manager.
“Yeah, it’s massive and to be honest we never talked about it all year,” he revealed.
“It’s great to have five-in-a-row considering where this group was a couple of years ago, there was so much heartbreak for years when we lost and to say we broke the duck and to go on and win five in a row is unbelievable.”
Captain and player of the match Mairead Eviston was also delighted with her sides victory.
“I can’t even put it into words,” she began.
“This is like a stand-alone county final for us, and the fact its five just makes it all the sweeter.
“We knew Clonoulty would come at us in the second half, and they have been coming back stronger every year and they pushed us right down to the wire, but we responded kept our cool and our experience got us over the line.”
On the upcoming Munster campaign where Drom will host Waterford champions in a semi-final on November 19th, Eviston is targeting retaining their provincial title.
“We are used to been in Munster now and we have places we want to go this year, we got to an All-Ireland semi-final last year and felt we left it behind us, so this year we want to push on again,” she said.