At the beginning of this season, the idea of Cavan having a camogie team looked doubtful, never mind an All-Ireland final.
Having not fielded a team the season before, Róisin O’Keeffe rallied the troops across the country, which initially only got 10 players to training.
Fast forward eight months, and Cavan are preparing for their All-Ireland Premier Junior camogie final against Armagh.
Something that would have been unimaginable at the beginning of the season, O’Keeffe reflected on the transformation of this team.
“At the start of the year, I think it was maybe December or January time it was put out, but there were only about 10 or 11 who decided that they would commit.
“It was kind of, right, it’s not going to happen, and then they entered an under-23 team and got a good group of girls in for it, which was hard for us older ones looking on being like, oh I’d only love to be wearing the Cavan jersey.
“Philip, our manager, he kind of rang a few girls around March time and put the feelers out again to see would they be willing to come in and commit. With the basis of the under-23 team and maybe a few of the minor girls, we got a group together and we built on it over the few weeks after that.
“Honestly, it’s probably one of the tightest groups I’ve ever met, I don’t know how it worked out, but maybe it was because everyone was fully committed and in there and really wanted Cavan camogie to push on. So, yeah, it’s been great. Since it started we’ve put in a lot of commitment.”
O’Keeffe played football for Cavan until her dual career was ended by a cruciate ligament injury in 2021.
Her football days saw Cavan win an intermediate All-Ireland title in 2013, and also win a camogie All-Ireland title with her club.
Sunday could be another day to remember for Cavan, and O’Keeffe is grateful to be part of it.
“You just don’t beat that feeling. Whether it’s at your club or whether it’s at your county, it’s so special, it’s so surreal.
“Even to see people within your community, or as I alluded to when we were in primary school or that, the people that have coached you the whole way up, like seeing them and the pride that’s in them- it’s memories for a lifetime. It would mean the world.”
After serious injuries and accomplishments in both football and camogie, nobody could fault the Cavan woman for hanging up the boots.
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However, having seen the quality of camogie across the country, O’Keeffe wants to inspire the next generation to keep the sport going in the future.
“You would really, really hope that that cohort of girls that maybe now are in their late twenties, you would hope that they are going to step up now and really drive this on.
“Even the buy-in from other club girls as well that hopefully seeing Cavan out in Croke Park, they’ll have that ambition now to be like, well, you know what, we can actually be part of a Cavan set-up and we can get to All-Ireland stages, and we can wear the blue jersey with pride.
“I’ve been one of these people that I know the talent that’s in it. And a lot of the girls that would have been playing on other teams. We would have come up against them years ago or played with them maybe in colleges or whatnot. You’re kind of looking at the level that they got to, and you’re like, why are we not having a say in this? So, yeah, I suppose that was always in you.
