MEGAN Donnelly is enjoying her camogie with Derry back in the senior championship and particularly after her return from an operation on her cruciate last season that kept her out of the team that went on to collect the All-Ireland Intermediate title.
Donnelly (née Kerr) was a regular the last time Derry played in Division One and suffered plenty of heavy defeats before re-locating to the Intermediate championship.
Wins over Antrim and Limerick in their opening three games means a quarter-final place in the All-Ireland Senior Championship is a still possibility for the PJ O’Mullan’s side
“It’s very difficult to motivate yourself year after year when you know you can’t compete with the top teams and there aren’t even games that you can look at and target for a win.
“This year has been so different and we have been lucky with the timetable of games as well,” says the teacher in St Joseph’s, Coalisland.
“Obviously we have now won two out of the first three championship games and the mood in the panel is certainly high.
“We would have looked at the Antrim and Limerick games as ones that we could have won, one was a trip across to Cushendall, the other a home game. If we had to play Limerick down in Rathkeale, like Antrim have to do, it might have been different.
“Even getting those games early in the group has been an advantage because we can go into this Saturday’s game against Kilkenny and then the last one in Waterford without a lot of pressure and see what we can get out of them.
“We have to travel down to both, but we aren’t writing off the season just yet. We think that there is a quarter-final place there. We don’t have anything to lose and the pressure is on the home teams.
“We had that pressure on ourselves against Limerick in Owenbeg; we didn’t take the lead until well into the second half. That was partly due to what Limerick were doing, but probably a little self-inflicted and you could see the difference in our play over the last 10 or 15 minutes once we were in the lead.”
However defeats in both the Division 2A Very National League final and the Ulster senior final still irk the Eoghan Rua player who commutes from her home in Trillick.
“We were really disappointed as we didn’t hit our first two markers for the season. We didn’t play our best in either game and the Ulster final defeat was even more frustrating given the way we played against Antrim a couple of weeks later.
“However the way we have performed since has really pleased us.”
Donnelly has been a versatile go-to player under different management teams. Two years ago she made the Irish News Team of the Year as a tight-marking corner-back while this season she has floated between half-back and midfield.
Against Limerick she anchored the defence at centre-half back and then moved into midfield when Leah Lennon was brought in from the bench after 48 minutes. She contributed the lead point for Derry within 60 seconds.
“I don’t score many points, I’m more someone who works away around midfield and lets others do the scoring. So I enjoyed that score. I enjoy half-back and I enjoy midfield, but I think that I’m past playing corner-back.
“I was happy enough to get out of there, there’s a wee bit too much pressure in the corner and it’s a difficult enough position to play. The older legs, I think, need a bit less stop start.”
Tyrone All-Ireland winner Mattie Donnelly was in Owenbeg to support his wife against Limerick, amusing their son Senan while chatting with Derry midfielder Brendan Rogers whose wife Bríd scored three first half points. There’s little chance of Mattie making the trip to Kilkenny.
“Clashed schedules are the norm with us, I’m afraid. But it was nice to have Mattie in Owenbeg with Tyrone not playing.
“However it would be really nice to see a few Derry supporters make the trip down to Nowlan Park. That would certainly help us and I think we can make it worth their while.”