LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Championship Group Three
Roscommon v Antrim (Roscommon, Sunday, 1pm)
 
THE slate is wiped clean for Antrim’s ladies as they get set to begin their All-Ireland Intermediate Championship campaign with a trip to Roscommon on Sunday.

It hasn’t been an ideal for the Antrim women as they suffered relegation back to Division Four in the League and lost their grip on the Ulster Intermediate title when Down powered past them last month.

It’s a far cry from last year when League promotion was followed by the Ulster title in their first year up at Intermediate and then a superb run in the All-Ireland series that saw them go all the way to t he semi-final, having just come up from Junior.

The hopes were high going into 2024 that further progress could be made, but the loss of so many players due to a variety of reasons including travel, retirement and work decimated the squad and left manager Emma Kelly to rebuild.

Therefore, the upcoming championship campaign will be a real test and one in which the aim will be to avoid dropping back to Junior where they would be forced to start everything from scratch next year.

Their relegation in the League was somewhat frustrating as they were right in the mix in enough games to have picked up the points to remain in Division Three.

Fading late against Louth set the tone, while they will have felt they could and probably should have go the job done against Wexford and Offaly, but as it was, they were left chasing points down the stretch, but left themselves with too much to do.

Ironically, it was a defeat to Roscommon in the final round of games that sealed their fate and it’s their destination for Sunday’s championship opener.

“It was close enough, so I suppose that’s why we were so disheartened to end up in the relegation zone,” team captain Ciara Brown reflected.

“A lot of the matches, there wasn’t much of a difference and it was our lack of experience that didn’t get us over the line.

“I still feel as though we are going into championship with our heads held high, but after all the losses, everyone was drained.

“I did have confidence in us going into the Ulster semi-final there, but Down are strong and are hammering on this year with a cracking team. They’ve made their way to the final, so fair play to them. But I think a lot of our girls were unhappy with our performance as we’ve still not shown what we can give.

“If you see our girls at training, it’s completely different from a match. A lot is down to our numbers as we can’t get a match situation in training and then when we get to a match, it’s not good enough.”

But that was then and this is now as Antrim look to turn corner in their year, beginning this week.

They will face a Rossies outfit that is in must-win territory having lost their opener away to Wexford at the weekend, 2-11 to 1-11, so there is real jeopardy attached to this game for the hosts.

For Antrim, there will be few expecting them to pull off a victory outside of the group, but they have their own ambition and although the bottom line is staying at Intermediate, a win on Sunday and the landscape will look so much better.

“It’s another fresh start and we are lucky to get one,” Brown added.

“We’re just looking to avoid relegation again and I know that’s what everyone has been talking about. If we can avoid relegation and get our wits about us, then we can attack next year with a fresh start when we have a lot of the girls and new faces back as a lot of the girls who have come in this year have a year of experience under their belt. When they come back next year, they can go even harder.”

The St Paul’s woman was speaking at the recent Antrim Club Championships’ draws at the Ramada Hotel.

For years, the Shaw’s Road club dominated ladies football in Antrim, but that has all changed in recent times with Moneyglass now the club to beat.

The emergence of new winners and challengers underline the growing strength of the ladies game in the county and that will feed into the county team.

Naturally, Brown would prefer if her club was winning every year, but acknowledges the overall benefit of having a growing number of sides able to contest for top honours.

“This is the first year it has been a thing, so it’s great to see all the clubs represented to start the year on a positive,” the county captain said of the draw that brought all the senior codes together.

“Moneyglas have been super strong and were even coming at us during the years we did win it. You need club rivals for football to be good, so having Moneyglass as a rival was really good and it pushed both teams on.

"Off the pitch, we are all friendly and it’s great to see them take the step forward. You always need new winners and hopefully St Paul’s can flip it back and lift the trophy.”