LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Championship, Group 4
Westmeath v Antrim (Mullingar, Sunday, 2pm)

CONFIDENCE will not be in short supply for Antrim’s ladies on Sunday when they travel to St Loman’s in Mullingar to face Westmeath in their opening LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Championship, Group 4 fixture.

The Saffrons have been riding the crest of a wave over the past 12 months with the All-Ireland Junior title annexed last year, before picking up where they left off in 2023 as they claimed the Division Four league title to ensure promotion and then have gone onto win the Ulster Intermediate title.

League promotion was the absolute priority for a squad that has been making huge strides as it will exposure them to a higher level of football next year that will help them continue to advance, but as their Ulster Championship campaign highlighted, they have no intention of just sitting back and admiring their work.

Making the step up to Intermediate was always going to be a measure of how far they have moved forward and with a victory over Monaghan in their opening game that instilled huge confidence, they went onto fall just short against Tyrone in a group game that was something of a dead rubber with both teams already through to the decider, but would win when it mattered against the Red Hands in the final.

“We are still at the stage where we got over the Ulster Intermediate and know what to expect, but going further into the All-Ireland we’re still a bit green,” said team captain Cathy Carey.

“We just don’t know what Westmeath are going to bring on Sunday but in terms of where we’re at, positivity-wise things are great and the girls are ready for the match. We’re looking forward to it as it sets up a new challenge for us.

“There are so many challenges we’ve overcome but the girls are hungry for another.

“After the first game (against Monaghan) we had proved a bit of a point. The final we just thought ‘these are up for this one’ but I still stink we’ve plenty to prove at this level. It’s always hard for a Junior team to come up and stay up, so that will be our goal. We still want to push on as much as possible and win as many games as we can, just like everyone intends to do.”

Last year, a rule was brought in where provincial winners can’t be relegated from Intermediate to Junior, so the goal of ensuring Antrim are not a ‘yo-yo team’ is off to a good start as establishing themselves at the grade is vital to get used to a higher standard of competition.

They have certainly made a good start with that provincial success, but will want to go farther again and will set their sights on progressing out of the group that will see them host Longford in a fortnight after this week’s opening game against the Lake County.

It will be a tough test as Westmeath won the Intermediate Championship in 2021 and although they were relegated back after competing at Senior last year, will have designs on jumping straight back.

Therefore, it will be an excellent test of Antrim’s credentials to see where they are at against a team that would be considered one of the leading contenders, yet Monaghan were also at Senior level last year before facing the drop and with a win over the Farney already recorded, Antrim will have ambitions to get their challenge off to a good start on Sunday.

“I can’t actually remember playing them in the most recent past,” said Carey.

“I’d say they are thinking the same as us in that they can get the win to set them up nicely for the next game, so there’ll be a lot at stake in this match.

“It’s really important (to make a good start) as it means the next one doesn’t have as much at stake. It was the same as Monaghan and Tyrone in Ulster where we knew that if we got over Monaghan, it would be a big scalp and we could focus on the final instead of the next game where we would have less time to focus on it, so it just sets us up a bit better.”

The momentum built due to their excellent form is also a huge plus heading into Sunday’s challenge as there is understandable confidence.

A winning habit is hard to beat and although the bar will be raised higher again this week from what they have faced in the past, this Antrim team has proven they have real quality, and the team captain reports that the mood had been extremely good in the camp in the build-up to Championship.

“A few had alluded to momentum being hard to beat,” Carey added.

“It is, as it creates really good momentum in training as that becomes better and girls are working a bit hard, confidence goes through the roof. That just leads from one thing into the other and hopefully will serve us well this week.”