AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie semi-final: Slaughtneil (Derry) v Thomastown (Kilkenny) (Sunday, Inniskeen, 2pm)
THERE are not too many players with the ability or the confidence to transfer to the All-Ireland champions, fit in and then make a major contribution to that club’s defence of their county and provincial titles.
That is journey travelled by Tina Hannon, who transferred from Naomh Bríd, a combination of Ballyskenach and Coolderry in Offaly, to Slaughtneil last April.
Eight weeks earlier the Derry club had become only the second from Ulster (after Rossa in 2008) to win the AIB All-Ireland senior club championship with a 1-10 to 0-11 final win over Sarsfields of Galway.
But how does an Offaly camog end up with Slaughtneil?
“A long story, really,” she says, smiling broadly.
“I was taking a bit time out in 2012 and was in Australia and I met up with two Slaughtneil footballers, Patsy and Paul Bradley, who were out on holiday at Fraser Island.
“Fast forward a few years and Patsy and I had decided to build a home in Slaughtneil at the start of last year. I moved up in March and joined the camogie club in April.
“At the same time my employer, whom I had worked with for the last eight years, offered me a position as Director of Nursing in a new business venture he had acquired in Letterkenny. So things have worked out not too badly.”
Tina was already a well-known face on the inter-county camogie scene having been part of the Offaly side that won the All-Ireland Junior in 2009, added the All-Ireland Intermediate a year later and then acquitted themselves quite well at senior level, reaching a semi-final and then falling narrowly in the 2016 quarter-final to a Kilkenny side that went on to win the All-Ireland.
“I had a great time with Offaly at senior level and that is why I stayed with them even after I transferred clubs last April.”
Tina played on the Offaly senior team in both the 2017 Leinster and All-Ireland series, but club commitments with Slaughtneil and the distance involved both in her commute to work and to county training etc means that she is currently re-assessing the situation.
“It would be a big wrench really – as it was to transfer clubs. Naomh Bríd had won the Offaly Junior title in 2014 and 2016, so there was maybe something bigger there as well.
“But I knew quite a few of the Slaughtneil girls from being around social functions in the club with Patsy. Still I was a bit nervous that first night going up with Grainne O’Kane to training, but they made me really welcome and the year has gone really well.
“It was a good time to transfer in that they were taking things easy in training after winning the All-Ireland and I had space to prove myself as opposed to coming into a team in the middle of a championship.”
In fact things went really well with Tina establishing herself as one of the most dangerous forwards in the county, ending up top-scorer in the league. That trend continued through the championship and she really savoured the county final win over Ballinascreen.
“It was a big thing for me, my first senior club medal, I was with a new club and I was enjoying playing the game.”
And things did not end there with the Offaly native making a real mark on the Ulster final against Loughgiel, scoring 10 points, five from frees, in a 2-11 to 3-5 victory in the Athletic Grounds Armagh.
“That was a great team performance. We went eight points down in the first quarter and then had the experience and the toughness to edge our way back into contention and eventually sneak the verdict with a few late points.”
Training has continued at a high pace for this weekend’s semi-final against Thomastown and Tina would be familiar enough with the Kilkenny club.
“I would know the Farrell sisters (Meighan and Shelly) for a few years and they now have two other sisters on the Kilkenny senior team. Thomastown have a lot of very strong forwards and I think that we will need to produce the same standard of game that beat Burgess Duharra in last year’s semi-final.”
Tina attended that game in Inniskeen early last year and was struck by the intensity and mental toughness of her now team-mates.
“I think that was the best performance any of us supporters had ever seen from them. They were so composed and controlled throughout, it was better even than the final in Croke Park.”
It’s early in Tina Hannon’s Slaughtneil career. But she is a player used to long journeys in short time-frames whether it be her daily commute to work, her travel to and from Offaly training all last season or from anonymity in Ulster less than 12 months ago to the most talked about player in the province.
Slaughtneil are more than happy that Patsy Bradley made a Faithful friend on Fraser Island nearly six years ago now.
AIB All-Ireland Intermediate Club Camogie Championship semi-final: Eglish (Tyrone) v Johnstownbridge (Kildare) (Sunday, Donaghmore Ashbourne, 2pm)
WHEN Kieran Donnelly relocated his family to his native Eglish a few years ago, he certainly gave the local camogie club a serious boost.
Eldest daughter Ciara was already an Armagh senior player, while Aisling and Leanne were coming through as promising underage players.
All three are now well established in the club senior team and bidding to reach a second successive All-Ireland Intermediate club final when they play Leinster champions Johnstownbridge from Kildare on Sunday afternoon in Donaghmore Ashbourne.
“It’s great playing with my sisters in a team that is doing well,” says Ciara who still continues to play county camogie with Armagh.
“It was a tough decision to move away from Granemore as it is where I learnt how to play camogie and I will always be grateful to the club. I was enjoying playing with Armagh, so I stuck with them and Leanne now is also in there at county level.”
The pair also have appeared together on Ulster teams as well, but have been in a rich scoring form of late with club and county although at both levels they have come up short in Croke Park and in both cased Carlow was the obstacle.
“Two years ago Armagh lost an All-Ireland final to Carlow. I think that there was about nine points in it at the end. So it was disappointing, but we had little complaint.”
Ciara was top-scorer for her county in that game and scored a memorable goal into the Canal end. More heart-breaking though was last March’s 1-10 to 1-9 defeat by Carlow club side Myshall in the club final – and it was no consolation that the eldest of the siblings had posted all nine points on the day.
“Aw, that was devastating. So close. I think we let the occasion get to us though. We left it too late before we began to play well and it was definitely one that got away.”
And it was a result that has made everyone associated with Eglish step up the work rate this season to get back to headquarters.
However this autumn and winter Ciara and youngest sister Leanne have struck up an interesting partnership, in two different arenas.
Not only did the pair make the Ulster championship club team of 2017, Ciara scoring 0-8 and Leanne 1-2 in a tough 2-11 to 3-6 win over Clonduff in the Ulster final, but they have brought St Catherine’s College Armagh their first Fr Davies’ senior title.
Leanne captained and top-scored for the team with her sister and Maths teacher as coach and they saw off St Killian’s Garron Tower in the Ulster final, also by a two points’ margin, just before Christmas. It means they have a second All-Ireland semi-final in mid-February.
Ciara’s schooldays were spent in St Patrick’s Keady, with whom she won a couple of Ulster titles, but she admits that taking St Catherine’s to this level has been very satisfying.
“It’s great to make a contribution to something new. St Catherine’s school teams have been doing very well here of late with Ciara Marley putting in a lot of work and we have a lot of young Eglish players here getting exposed to a good standard of Colleges’ camogie as well.”
The weather has interrupted both club and school in their All-Ireland semi-final preparations but Ciara has been philosophical about that.
“If we can’t get doing the amount of training we would like because of snow, then neither can our opponents. We are doing our best and we get good sessions in when we can.”
Johnstownbridge present a new obstacle for Eglish as they had expected Myshall to retain their Leinster title, but the Kildare side, All-Ireland Junior winners last season, slipped through on a 2-9 to 1-8 score-line.
“In that sense they are a bit of an unknown quantity to us. But we won our semi-final against Galltir of Waterford in Donaghmore Ashbourne last year and we are back there again. So maybe we have a slight advantage there.
“Anyway what we found out last year in Croke Park was that, no matter who the opposition is, we still have to produce our A game and keep scoring until the referee blows the final whistle.”
And this is one Maths teacher who knows how to add scores on to score-boards.
