'The girls never give up!'

BRIAN Scullion was finding it hard to find words that could praise his side enough following the game in Omagh on Sunday. 

No wonder as there probably isn’t a word out there that would be enough. 

“The girls never give up. That group of girls in there are fantastic. It’s a panel of one to 28, but we have 30 to 40 to at training.” 

“It was such a hard fought game there,” he said.

“Dungloe were an excellent team throughout, probably had they taken their scores in both the first half and the second half they would have been out of sight. 

“No doubt they could have had three goals and points missed too in that first half but that’s the way it goes sometimes, thankfully for us it went our way today.”

He added: “It looked like it had got away from us there, but the girls really dug in with some staunch defending at the end. Niamh McKenna made a point blank save - unreal.

“Testament to our girls, they kept digging in and digging away, we were out on our feet.”

The achievement is even more superb given where this side have come from with a number of the girls just two years ago beginning football for the first time. 

“They literally couldn’t kick a ball and that is not being disrespectful to them. They worked and worked at it and last year it was working the basics and we stepped it up a wee bit more this year, Paul (Scullion) and Mary Jo (Boyle) have been immense, their knowledge of ladies football which I don’t have. Myself and Cathy (Collins) did the best too but those two really drove us on.” 

The journey they have taken the Lavey club on in such a short space has been phenomenal and next stop will be Claremorris as the All-Ireland campaign begins now. 

“It has made some difference to the club in what has been a difficult enough year. The parish is buzzing and those girls are responsible for it. 

“Fantastic support, lots of dual players and a part from the county players they haven’t really tasted success. Up against a phenomenal Slaughtneil camogie side in Derry, so it is great for them to win today too.”

Scullion himself won an All-Ireland club medal with Lavey but for this, as manager and watching his daughter win, is more important. 

“It is more important. When we were playing 30 years ago you just believed this is going to happen all the time but it doesn’t happen like that. You see the work that has to be put in and the background work. As a player we just went with the flow, as a manager I now see what it means to the parish. To see the young ones looking up to these girls.”