Begley believes Carmen’s future in good hands

SENIOR Championship titles may have been thin enough on the ground for Carrickmore Ladies over the past decade but legendary club attacker Gemma Begley feels that also speaks volumes for how competitive the game has become in Tyrone.

During the height of their dominance the St Colmcille’s girls rattled off eight county titles in the space of ten seasons (1999-2008) as they established a vice-like grip on ladies football, but since then they have taken ownership of the Jarlath Kerr Cup just twice (2013, 2021).

Three times All-Star winner Begley hopes they can add to their collection when they take on St Macartans in the 2024 SFC decider under the lights at O’Neills Healy Park this Saturday evening and she again underlined her class and experience in helping to guide Carmen past Moortown in a fiercely fought semi-final last weekend at Rock.

Given the impressive emergence of new forces in Tyrone she feels that clinching a berth in the Senior showdown isn’t as routine as might have been the case in the past.

“ It’s great to see how competitive it has got. Moortown have built so well in recent years and now you have Trillick emerging too. It can only be good for Tyrone football overall.

“ We were slow enough to really got going this year in terms of building and were probably abit behind the other teams but we have built some momentum as the Championship has gone on.”

While Carrickmore still look to the likes of Gemma to help steer them through rockier moments during matches, an exciting young batch are also flourishing, with the likes of Caitlin Gormley, Alanagh McCallan, Siofra Loughran and the precocious Sorcha Gormley spearheading their challenge.

Gemma feels that the future of the club is in safe hands.

“ Things seem to change so quickly in ladies football from one year to the next in terms of the squad turnover.

“ We have a good mix of youth and older ones likes myself but it is the younger girls we look to now, the likes of Sorcha, Caitlin, Siofra and Alanagh.  They are all driving us on and it’s great to see. Their fitness levels are great and that makes it easier for the rest of us to hang on to their coat-tails.

“ We have a stronger panel than last year when we were down a lot of numbers, with girls having babies and other factors. But it’s definitely nice to be there at the business end of the season and hopefully we have timed the run perfectly.

“ It’s just great to be in the mix. We haven’t looked too far ahead, our full focus was on Moortown because we only beat them by a couple of points in the league so we knew how good they were.”

The signs didn’t look too encouraging in the early stages of the second half when Moortown keeper Sinead McVey stuck away a penalty goal to put her team three points ahead, but goals from Caitlin and Sorcha Gormley helped Carmen to eventually leapfrog ahead by the final whistle.

Begley hopes that the nature of the victory will stand to them now come this Saturday’s final.

“ We just got a bit of a spark out of somewhere. We were trying so hard but nothing seemed to be working for us. I suppose it was all about hanging in there and we just needed a couple of breaks to go our way.

“ In fairness there is different people standing up to be counted every time we go out and play. We were just delighted to get over the line and a good tough challenge like that should stand to us. Hopefully we will be a bit sharper as a result of it too.

“ You have to give credit to Moortown. They were so well set-up and made it so tough for us. There was no breathing space there but we managed to settle ourselves and tried to bring a bit more control to things. You still need to put the finishing touch to those moves and we did that too in the second half.

“ It was a tough battle overall and we probably had a bit of luck for our first goal as well. That gave us a bit of a boost just to see it home.”

Casting an eye ahead to this final, Gemma states that they are all too familiar with St Macartans and what they will bring to the occasion.

“ They beat last year’s champions Errigal so that was a bit of a surprise but there is rarely much between them and St Macartans when they play.

“ You know what you are going to be up against. They are well-organised and full of running. We will have to be at our very best to beat them.

“ Everyone knows how strong they are and they will be keen to get the trophy after what happened last year against Errigal.”