St Rynagh's camogie manager says winning back to back titles is special

ST Rynagh's manager Mark Dunne said the achievement of his side in winning back to back All-Ireland intermediate camogie titles was special, particularly as it was all done within a very tight time frame after the 2020 championship was delayed due to Covid and was only completed in early January.

However, he felt the bigger achievement of his side was winning 12 consecutive knock out games in a row in that short space of time.

“We know it's special doing back to back, but the biggest thing that we look at that's special is that it was 12 consecutive knock out games without going back to a league format of any sort,” he said.

“Usually you go back into a club league or a group stage of a championship but we had 12 days in a row in a short space of time when no matter good you are or how good you think you are, you are there to be caught and to get through that, there has to be something special or steely within the group and that is probably what we were motivating ourselves with. Every day you went out if you didn't win it was over. It's been a crazy, crazy schedule, we travelled all around the country. As soon as one game was over, you had another game but we managed to get here fully healthy and fit,” he added.

St Rynagh's played some wonderful camogie, particularly in the first half, as they put their opponents to the sword but ever the perfectionist, the manager wasn't 100% pleased with everything he saw.

“Our own performance, I was frustrated with it at times would you believe,” he stated. “We switched off, and I know it happens sometimes in games, but you want to stay going, you want every moment and maybe that's a bit ruthless at times, you play for 60 minutes and make that a habit, and maybe you don't always have to but the days you do, you have done it.

“I thought our movement up front was exceptional early on, I thought the pace that we played at it invited our half back line onto attack, and we took the opportunies to attack. I think all our half back line got on the scoreboard, so that is the one thing we have. The pace we have in that half back line is a serious attacking threat. Not many teams, expecially at club level, have that and if you invite on Emma Corcoran, Katie O'Connell, Roisin Egan or Grainne Dolan, they will follow you up the field and they will hurt you. We probably had too much firepower in that situation,” said Mark.

“I thought we were very disciplined at the back early on too. I couldn't be happier. You'd take a win by a point, you'd take getting over the line with a scrappy goal, you'd take anything but when you play like that, they are going to have this game to look back on forever. Every moment you have out there, regardless of the score, you can look on it tomorrow, or in a few years when they are retired, you have done something special,” he said.

Having gone through all those tight games with Gailltir in recent years, it was probably nice to be able to relax a bit more towards the end of this one?

“Of course it is. I suppose in some ways yeah, in other ways you enjoy the other a bit more when you come out the right side of it. We know we are capable of opening up any team on any given day but we are also very aware that we are capable of being caught by any team. That's sport, that's why we all love it, the unpredictability of it. We played Barrow Rangers down in Rynagh's, our only home game of all these 12 games, and people expected us to win it but that's not how it works unfortunately, the dynamic changed and we had an unbelieveable battle to get over the line. We had an unbelievable battle from Gailltir and it was important that we represented those teams well going forward as well,” he remarked.

Two years ago a late Gailltir goal gave the Waterford side victory over St Rynagh's and Mark reflected on that defeat.

“The last time we lost here the better team won and we had no problem saying that. We would be only fooling ourselves if we looked at it in any other way. We had to take that on the chin and go back. Since then the girls haven't been beaten, we've been through everything, the panel has got stronger. That team is not finished by any means. The oldest is probably 34, after that you are going down to 31 and then it goes way down. We had a girl of 16 years of age, Katie O'Connell, 16 years of age Sinead Hanamy and even Kate Kenny is only 20.”

As a result to St Rynagh's winning two in a row, next year's Offaly county champions will play in the Leinster Senior Championship rather that the Intermediate, and that will be a new challenge.

“The thing about going senior is something we blocked out because obviously it's next year's Offaly champions. Obviously we'd love to be that and you'd love to get a shot at it, but I can guarantee you there's a good few teams in Offaly who will have a lot to say about it. Because it's nearly as hard to get out of Offaly and the minute we say we are looking forward to Senior Leinster next year, I guarantee you Birr and Shinrone and Killeigh and them will be on the go.”

Mark had words of encouragement for their opponents on Sunday, and particularly Emma Madden, who was sent off after getting two yellow cards in the first half.

“We were put up as big favourites coming in but we tried to block it out. We only got to this point by concentrating on our job day by day and that Salthill team deserved a lot of respect and probably even more after the way they stuck at it to the end. We played some great stuff but to have a player sent off, and that was just a very unlucky situation, but she's a fantastic girl and you're going to be hearing a lot more about that girl. She has done an awful lot to get the team here so I hope she doesn't take that to heart or knock her back. I think she will be stronger for it and I think they need to be massively commended because you are in Croke Park, it's your first time there and the scoreline tells you the game is over but you keep going. We can all say, we played well and got over the line and win by a point but they represented their club excellently.”

For now St Rynagh's can relax after a hectic schedule and have time to enjoy this victory.

“We took today for what it is, it was an All-Ireland final. Now we can look back on the achievements of the two back to back, it's massive. We got to enjoy the last one to a degree but at the same time, you had Covid, you were still in semi-lockdown and we were actually back training the following Friday. So even though we did enjoy it, I think we will get to enjoy this one more knowing they can go and live their lives a bit now. It's been a long, long slog,” he said.