Casey seeking another big step forward

Michelle Casey rewinds to last November.

Neville Park, Rathkeale. The first steps taken in yet another inter-county campaign.

At 33, the Garda has spent more seasons in the green and white of Limerick than she’d like to remember, but despite previous setbacks, the Killeedy native is relishing tomorrow’s sojourn to Croke Park — it’s the very reason she’s still going.

“I remember our first session back and Joe Quaid dangled dreams of an All-Ireland final at us,” she recalled. “There and then that became our sole focus. We have won a league and a Munster junior title, but Croke Park is still is our focus.”

Victory against a sprightly Galway outfit will secure Limerick’s place at camogie’s top table and Casey is determined the Treaty County earn their seat on merit.

For too long the centre-back was part of a Limerick team that had no right to wear the senior tag. Season after season their purpose was nothing more than to serve as the proverbial whipping girls of the championship, each campaign producing a recurring theme — one hammering after another.

On the sole occasion Limerick managed to raise their head above the parapet in reaching the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final they were subjected to a 26-point trouncing at the hands of Cork.

Two years later Limerick made the decision to remove themselves from the senior equation.

“We never got to a stage where we were really competitive,” lamented Casey. “We hadn’t really a big squad and it was difficult to be competitive, unfortunately it came to a halt in 2007 when we went down intermediate.

“We competed in this competition in 2007, it was then known as Senior B. Ciarán Carey was manager and got us back up, we won the league and championship.”

Still, Limerick couldn’t cope with the heat of the senior kitchen and following three championship maulings, the decision was once more taken to return to the second tier and there they have remained, reaching the semi-finals in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

“The reward for winning the league earlier in the year puts us back in Division 1 next year and that will be a huge challenge. The reward if we can get over Galway on Sunday is facing an even stronger Galway team in 2014 and better teams from all over the country.

“In the Munster senior championship semi-final Tipperary only had four points on us. We played really well and were ahead with 10 minutes to go. Their pace told in the closing stages and they saw it out.”

Limerick topped their championship group with three wins out of four, producing a string of fine performances before Meath were comfortably overcome in the semi-final.

“A far cry from last year,” asserts Casey, successive defeats to Derry and Waterford ensuring their early exit from the race for the Jack McGrath Cup. “Last year was a disappointment not to get out of the group stages and it took a lot of rebuilding to get where we are now. There was a lot of effort put in over the past 10 months to make this a squad that could compete at the top end of the championship.

“Galway have some recognised names in young Cooney and McGrath, they will be a very hard team to deal with.

“They will want to right the wrongs of last year, but hopefully we’ll come out on top.”