Tyrone Camogs to face Louth in Nancy Murray Cup opener

TYRONE camogs are gearing up for championship battle and hoping it’s a case of third time’s the charm in this year’s Nancy Murray Cup competition.

They get their championship campaign underway against Louth this Saturday at Carrickmore and they’re motivated by the desire to make up with the final defeats of the last two years (they were a distinct second best against Cavan in 2020 but were unfortunate to lose to Mayo in last season’s decider).

There’s a distinct lack of competition this time around, unfortunately, as Donegal and Monaghan decided against fielding a team, so Tyrone, Louth and Wicklow will duke it out for the title.

The Red Hands, who reformed at senior camogie level back in 2017, have had made some good strides, particularly at underage level, and their manager Declan Sherlock is hopeful that they can win the tournament and make the big leap up to the All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship, a more prestigious and well-established tournament with teams across the country.

Sherlock said: “When we started this journey, it was ourselves, Roscommon, Cavan, Wicklow, Louth and Mayo in this competition.

“It’s a pity that it’s dwindled but we can do nothing about that, and our hunger for the competition hasn’t diminished.

“Our plan is to win this title and get into the Premier Junior All-Ireland.

“We’re strong at U-16 and minor level in Tyrone and we’re hoping to get a bit of buy in from them in the near future.

“We would prefer to be playing Premier Junior camogie, there’s more teams involved.

“We have a lot of very busy young camogs at underage level who are dual players, but we’re hoping that as they get our minor level they’ll be able to commit to us going forward.”

Tyrone ran out comfortable victors over Louth when they met on the final day of the Division Four league in late March.

That was their final game together at county level, but the girls have been kept busy on the club scene (the Tyrone team draws players from Aodh Ruadh Dungannon, Derrytresk, Brocagh, Carrickmore, Greencastle and Eglish).

The side is captained by Laura Barker while their main score-getter is dual-player Reagan Fay, who played for the Tyrone ladies side that bowed out of the championship with defeat to Wexford at the weekend.

“There has been a big gap but a lot of the club teams in Tyrone are involved in three separate leagues, so girls are playing in Armagh, Derry and at home.

“They’re playing on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays so they’re getting loads of camogie. We haven’t changed our panel much, it’s much the same as it was last year.

“Ideally we’d like it if they were able to train with us a couple of nights a week but that can’t happen if they’re playing multiple matches with their clubs.”