*Sinead Hogg celebrates Truagh/Clonlara’s semi-final win. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
TRUAGH/Clonlara’s progress to a first ever All-Ireland senior club championship camogie final has been helped by the fact that the team takes learnings from every game.
That’s according to defender Sinead Hogg who has been one of many stars in this season’s memorable campaign for the South-East Clare club. “We had an ambition at the start of the year to win three trophies. The initial focus was on the county championship, we wanted to do what we did last year. We went through the group stage and we knew the draw would have us facing Scariff/Ogonnelloe in the semi-final.
“We are well in tune with each other and we know what we have to do if we go to extra time. Then we had Inagh/Kilnamona in the county final. Those wins over Scariff/Ogonnelloe and Inagh/Kilnamona made us resilient going into Munster,” she told The Clare Echo.
Sinead was happy that the team was “well prepared going into Munster We felt we had let ourselves down last year in the provincial competition. We knew facing Clonoulty that Tipperary camogie is in the top four or five in the country and we knew Clonoulty would be good. It was great to have that game in Clonlara, everyone helped out in the lead up to the game. It was a huge occasion for the club and we were glad to push on”.
She continued, “The Munster final against Gailtir was a game for the ages, they are a savage team. Waterford camogie is up and coming. We wanted to perform in that final. We felt we had kind of left it behind us the first day. We targeted a good start the second day. We never panicked in extra time as we knew what we had. What a game”.
“The lads have us trained to be resilient, we are used to extra time. We have all our homework done, we play the way we are told”, Sinead added.
The team took a day or two to celebrate the Munster success and then re-focused again. “We know what we are at, we put the heads down and went back training and took our learnings from the Munster campaign. There was a huge high after winning Munster”.
Reflecting on the All-Ireland semi-final with St. Vincent’s, Sinead said “it was a great game but we didn’t really play as we know how in the first half. We had a quick chat at half time and we came out and played like we wanted to play”.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s All-Ireland final in Croke Park Sinead says, “it’s one thing to play there with your county but its extra special to be there with your club. Getting to play in all those big stadiums is something you dream of and we can’t wait to get there”.
She said, “we know what is coming down the track and the lads will have us well prepared. We stick to our process and we know what is required. We have huge games under our belts now and we take learnings from every game”.
Sinead has no fears about the fact that the game will be played under lights. “We have been training under lights and that is not a concern. Croke Park is where we want to be. We expect a big crowd in Croke Park and we are hopeful that support will come from all over the county. To get to Croke Park with your club is extremely special. We want to represent ourselves, our families, our friends, our county and our province”.
Concluding Sinead said, “we will take it as it comes. We will give it everything in the first half, then regroup and hopefully we will be on the right side of the result and make it a very special Christmas”.
