by Séamas McAleenan

Naturally enough, the Antrim team and management will be hoping that they beat Kerry this Saturday when the two first-round winners in Group 1 of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Intermediate Championship go head-to-head in round two in Ahoghill.

However, Lucia McNaughton, the Antrim captain when the team last won the title in 2021, has an added reason for securing the win this weekend.

A second victory would almost certainly guarantee a place in the semi-finals for the Saffrons and that is the preferred route for McNaughton, because a quarter-final line-up with either of the top two from Group 2 would clash with another important date in the Loughgiel stalwart’s calendar.

She is set to marry fiancé Conal Morgan on July 4.

“I am trying not to think about what might happen if Antrim had to go the quarter-final route,” said the centre-forward this week. “Our focus as a team is always on putting into operation a gameplan that will get us to through to winning each game.

“If you go back to the start of the year, our goal for this competition was to top the group and get into a semi-final. That would be the direct route. Our preparation for the actual game won’t really have changed because there is a wedding in the middle of that.”

However, the physio in Ballymena Health and Care Centre admits that progress to the semi-finals will almost certainly impact on honeymoon plans.

“There are no plans yet for the honeymoon. We will just have to look at things and figure that out a little closer to the time. I think those of us who commit to camogie or hurling, or any sport indeed, are used to the idea of booking last-minute holidays and working around key fixtures.”

Lucky then for McNaughton that her husband-to-be is just as committed to his sport as she is to camogie, even if that creates its own conflicts, with him regularly coming up against her brothers.

“Conal won an Antrim senior hurling title with St John’s last year – unfortunately at Loughgiel’s expense! It was St John’s first title in 52 years, so it meant a lot to them. But my allegiance was definitely with Loughgiel for the final.

“Well, yes, I wanted Conal to play well. But James and Nicholas play for Loughgiel. We all know the effort that people put in to win a county championship and it was great that Conal managed to get one.

“If any team was to beat us in a final, St John’s would be my favourite. But it was still a day of mixed emotions – happy enough for Conal, but you still have to think about Nicholas and James.

“Conal used to be delegated to mark James. He marked him in a championship game in Dunsilly before we started going out. Then in Dunloy when we were together.

“Then there was the day when we won the All-Ireland in Croke Park and neither of them could go to Croke Park because they were marking each other in a championship match in Portglenone later that evening!

“Thankfully, they don’t have to mark each other often nowadays.”

Mention of that day in 2021 brings us back to camogie and one of the high points of McNaughton’s sporting career when she lifted the Jack McGrath Cup as Antrim captain on her birthday.

“It would be great for us to get back to Croke Park and to relive that. But the intermediate championship is quite difficult. There are a number of teams capable of reaching Croke Park this year. Antrim are among those teams of course.

“It was the same this time last year. Because we did so well in the league (beating subsequent senior quarter-finalists Clare in the Division 1B final), there was a lot of people thinking that we would do well in the championship.

“But Offaly beat us in the semi-final and then went on to beat Kerry in the final. Naturally enough, we were very disappointed that we didn’t get to the final and have a chance to get back into the senior grade. But that’s sport and it’s a similar situation this year.

“Because we did well in the Division 1A League, the supporters are talking again about Croke Park. The team and management though are just focussed on the next match – and that is Kerry.”

McNaughton’s camogie commitments extend the whole year round – 12 successive Antrim club titles and the last four Ulster crowns mean that she is training and playing right through to the end of November and – in 2022 – right up to defeat in the final to Sarsfields a week before Christmas.

It has taken its toll on a player who has “filled nearly every position on the pitch”. She has struggled with injury over the past few years.

“I first felt the injury towards the end of the league in 2023. Wexford beat us in Portglenone.

“I had a very sore hamstring – or I thought it was a hamstring. But after physio and an MRI, we established it was osteitis pubis which isn’t a very common injury in women.”

McNaughton, a practising physio, hadn’t come across it much up until then.

“No, I knew little about it, but since then I have read up on it. It seems to be more common in men. At the time, I found it difficult because you were trying to work out a rehab programme that suited and there was a certain amount of trial and error in all that.

“I continued going to training and games; doing my rehab while the girls were doing their gym work or running at the side of the pitch while they were training. Basically trying to keep as involved as I could.

“I managed to get back for the All-Ireland senior quarter-final against Tipperary in Croke Park – probably the toughest game Antrim played that year. But I would have been happy enough to be back playing and was able to complete the rest of the season with Loughgiel.

“The next year was something similar – rehab for the early part of the year and then trying to get back for the championship. I managed to make the Limerick game – that was a relegation play-off and we lost it and went down to the intermediate.

“But by then I had got on top of the rehab, what was working and what wasn’t and I have been back more or less since then, although there was a short time out with a (broken) finger injury as well.

“It was and is a very frustrating time – particularly when it starts to impact on your life, getting out of bed or getting in or out of a car. Being injured is quite lonely as well. You are wishing the best for Antrim and Loughgiel, but you just want to be there making a contribution.

“And then being a physio suggests that you should know a lot more and you feel you should be back quicker. But it doesn’t always work out that way.”

A fortnight ago, Antrim struggled for a while with Derry and were level right through for about 40 minutes.

“Then they had a player sent off and we managed to handle them for the time remaining and get a win under our belt. We know Kerry fought out a very tough battle with Down at the same time and got the winning score deep in injury time.

“They are a formidable outfit and we will have to work very hard to beat them.

“Hopefully it all works out for us.”

Tweet

Most Read Stories