Revenge the spur as Tipperary girls claim camogie crown

THE WINNERS’ dressing room is so easy to visit, not so easy to control.

Tipp players were exiting in droves - an All-Ireland title to be celebrated after their thrilling 2-11 to 1-11 victory over Cork yesterday in front of over 16,000 fans at Croke Park.

Shouts of Quinn’s Pub were ringing through the heavily scented air. An old meeting place for teams of the past, the newly crowned champions couldn’t wait to cut loose.

Coach Raymie Ryan sweeps up most of the attention as the county’s fourth All-Ireland title was making its way into the history books. He said that their single-minded approach and their desire for revenge were apparent from an early stage.

“A year’s work and it came down to the last puck of the ball,” he says with a shake of the head.

The details of who scored were not important, as the Tipp boss was emphatic in praising all his players.

All afternoon it appeared that the sliothar was hit with the intent of getting back at last season’s defeat. There was no way, according to Ryan, that they were going to give the same sort of leeway that they gave to 4the Cork forwards 12 months previous. One such incident was when Fiona O’Driscoll broke free and was racing on goal ready to blast the net when Una O’Dwyer got back, denied her and Claire Madden eventually cleared the ball. A vital intervention.

“A year’s planning is gone into that block and on how to stop Fiona O’Driscoll from repeating the performance she gave in last year’s final.

Captain Una O’Dwyer labelled the win “the best day of my life”

“We were very disappointed leaving in four goals last year. We felt we had something to prove this year and that was what drove us on. Not taking from the Cork victory but all six of us, and Jovita (Delaney) were gutted after that display.

“Everybody was very relaxed coming up.

“We started to tune in when we arrived here which was good as nobody was uptight about it. Thankfully in the second half we started to pull away. Up to then we were piling on the pressure in the forward line but weren’t converting the possession.”

A smiling Jovita Delaney is nearby. The heat of the battle obviously had taken its toll but she is happy - happy for more reasons than one. Nine months ago a serious car accident confined her to the recovery ward for the earlier part of the year. Her fight back, although hard work, was rewarded like most of her colleagues with a fourth All-Ireland medal.

“Great to come back and be victorious. The big thing about last year was that we knew we did not perform on the day in a lot of areas including myself. It was cruel. It takes guts to come back and go for it again.

“There was one stage when I thought I would never get back playing again. But, thankfully I stuck it at, did a lot of work. I am still not right but I am getting there.”

There was also a special mention for Raymie Ryan. “It was a difficult task for him to take on after Michael Cleary. Fair play he came in, he knew what it was about, what he wanted done and the players responded.”