LGFA Division Four semi-final
Antrim v Leitrim (Kingscourt, Sunday, 2pm)

WITH seven wins in as many outings in Division Four of the LGFA National League, Antrim’s ladies have impressed but the heat will be cranked up further at Kingscourt on Sunday when they take on Leitrim in the semi-final.

In effect, this is a promotion playoff with the finalists guaranteed Division Three football next year as well as a place in this year’s final, and Antrim will be keen to ensure a swift return having suffered relegation last year.

Although it may be the bottom tier, Division Four has not lacked quality as current All-Ireland Junior champions, Fermanagh face Sligo in the other semi-final, but Antrim are tasked with a return game against the current Intermediate champions this week - a sign of just how strong the section is.

The teams met earlier in the campaign with Antrim scoring a 3-18 to 1-10 win over the Connacht side in Dunsilly as Maria O’Neill netted twice after team captain had scored the first goal as Chris Scullion and Mickey Devlin’s team took the points.

But the stakes are higher for this week’s rematch as the Saffrons seek a repeat victory which will see them reach one of their goals for the season.

“We’re happy how it’s progressed,” Scullion said of the campaign to date.

“We’ve probably surprised ourselves a little bit at how well we’ve done, but we’re in a good position now. We’re going into the semi-final this weekend and we’ll hope to do well in as well, put in performance and see how it goes.

“It just shows that between the divisions, between the championship levels, there isn’t a massive gap.

“We did set out a stall to hopefully try and be in the mix around this time and thankfully we are.

“The approach from game to game didn’t change. We took each game as a single unit each time, approached it the same way and thankfully the results went our way.

“But even going into this, we’re not going to change anything as the girls are starting to get used to it.

“We know what we’re about, we know how we’re going to prepare ourselves and we’ve been putting in the performances.”

Scullion and Devlin assumed the reins this year as Antrim were forced to rebuild, having dropped down in both league and championship after making great strides in the previous years.

It’s been something of a clean slate this year as the pair set about rebuilding the squad as they ran their eye over new fewer than 58 players during trials, mixing fresh faces with some of the more established players who have tasted success in an Antrim jersey to settle upon the panel.

Their philosophy has been to give as many players time on the pitch as possible, mixing up team selections from week to week in order to find out exactly what players can perform at this level and they have been delighted with what they have found.

A lot of progress has been made, but there is more to come and Devlin is delighted with the strides made in such a short space of time.

“We had a good game against Leitrim last day out,” he reflected.

“It was a close game and I would say this Sunday is no different. I know it’ll be a tight game; they’re a quality side too, it’s an hour’s football and we’ll see where it takes us. There’s still a fair amount of work in progress as well.

"We’re still building, we’ve got a great panel there. We’ve brought 16 new players into the panel that haven’t played county before. We can’t ask any more of them.

“When we started off, everything was new. It was a new approach, new Antrim and that’s what we labelled it. The objective was to give every girl the best opportunity to come and play for their county.

“We certainly don’t think we’re anywhere near what we want to be - we have a lot of work to do.

“In the league games, we’ve given 30 players football and that’s what it was about. We’ve never put the same team out twice.

“We change personnel every week so we could see players. There’s no point in having them on the bench every week. We’re happy where we are at the minute - we’re in the mix.”

Antrim’s camógs have a Division 1B final at Abbotstown on Saturday at 2pm when they face Clare.

The teams actually met at the weekend in what was a dress rehearsal as Antrim claimed a 5-12 to 1-10 win in Ennis with Cassie McArthur hitting four goals.
 
U20s in action
It’s also a big weekend of action for Antrim’s U20 teams as on Saturday, Micky McShane’s hurlers travel to Mullingar to take on Westmeath in their Leinster Tier 2 opener (2pm).

They enjoyed a fine campaign in Ulster to regain the provincial title and will hope to build upon that as the tests get bigger.

Also on Saturday, the U20 footballers welcome Fermanagh to Dunsilly (2pm) for their second Ulster Championship Group A game.