'If the girls turn up, they're going to be very hard to beat'- St Brigid's manager Brian Bowe
His side are in a Leinster final on Sunday in Tullamore
Sunday will be a big day for all those involved with St Brigid’s Camogie Club as they travel to Tullamore to play in the club’s first ever Leinster Intermediate Camogie final.
Manager Brian Bowe chatted to the Leinster Express/Laois Live to give his thoughts ahead of the provincial decider.
“We’re going as good as we could expect now and hopefully everyone is flying fit. We trained Sunday morning and last Tuesday and we nearly had to slow down the girls at one stage. We were nearly closing our eyes when they were playing a match there so they're in great spirits,” he said.
St Brigid’s played Na Fianna in the semi-finals two weeks ago which gave the girls a much needed break according to Bowe as it had been week on week for the last nine weeks.
“They needed it badly. We went from the summer to doing nothing and then eight matches I think in nine weeks. So badly, badly needed a break,” Bowe said.
That game against Na Fianna was a superb victory for St Brigid’s as the Meath side were the reigning champions and had gotten to the All-Ireland final last year.
“We knew it was going to be a huge task. I'd seen a good few videos of them and I'd seen them in the All-Ireland final last year. I knew it was going to take everything to beat them. On the day, it took absolutely everything to beat them. It was a great win for the girls,” he said.
Like all sides that progress to the Leinster Club Championship, St Brigid’s had to win the Laois Championship first which they did against Camross. The Brigid’s boss feels that the competitive nature of the club championship has helped Brigid’s in their path to the final.
“It’s nearly harder to get out of Laois at this stage with O’Moore’s and Camross than it is to get anywhere else because it’s so competitive there with the three teams at the top of Laois Camogie. We were delighted to get out of Laois this year and the second-half of the final was a huge performance. They brought that for the hour against Na Fianna last week. Hopefully they can show the same again next Sunday,” Bowe added.
His side have plenty of inter-county experience with a handful of them being on the Laois panel this year that reached the final of all three competitions they played in; league final, Leinster final and All-Ireland final. He was delighted when he finally got them back from the county.
“It was huge having them, we were without them nearly all year. We got a couple of girls released now and again but the first night we got them all back on the field, the whole thing just completely lifted. The junior girls were fabulous all year there but once the likes of Clodagh, the two Finlay’s came back and Grainne Hyland came back they just lifted the younger players. We had a lot of girls come through Minor now this year into the Juniors. As soon as they started training with the county girls, the whole thing went up a notch,” he said.
Bowe admits that he doesn’t know much about Sunday’s opponents but that they’ll be only focusing on themselves and their own performance.
“We always do a lot of research on teams before we play them. We're not really focusing on them now too much,we're kind of concentrating on ourselves now. If the girls turn up, they're going to be very hard to beat. Naas have a couple of strong girls in the forward line, their centre back is a good player too. We're looking at focusing on ourselves. We focused a lot on Na Fianna obviously but they're such a high profile team so we had to really do our research on them. We're just hoping the girls turn up again and if they do Naas are going to have to beat us and that's the way we're looking at it,” Bowe admitted.
Bowe has been amazed by the support that his side have been received in their Leinster journey to date. They had two away games in Carlow and Meath but still brought plenty of supporters to cheer on the team.
“I only got really involved with Brigid’s this year and the last few matches have just been phenomenal. We outnumbered Myshall two to one down there and we outnumbered Na Fianna three to one. It's just huge to have that much support there and it’s nice for the girls to be getting it. I don't think there were as many St Brigid’s tops sold in the history of the club as there have been in the last week and I've never seen as many flags around the town,” he ended.