Superb Castlegar upset the odds in making club camogie history

Castlegar 1-8The Rower Inistioge 1-6

Eoghan Cormican in Ashbourne

TWO days on and the Rower-Inistioge are probably still trying to ascertain what hit them in Ashbourne on Saturday. The much-fancied Kilkenny women were left shell-shocked by a fire and brimstone display from opponents who created history in becoming the first Galway club to annex the Agnes O’Farrelly Cup.

Branded virtual no hopers by the vast majority of sporting pundits, Castlegar delivered the perfect response with a magnificent team performance which had the Rower-Inistioge on the back foot from the off, even if the scoreboard failed to reflect their dominance throughout. 

Three weeks ago, Castlegar carved out a superb win against Ballycran in the All-Ireland semi-final replay, but if anything, they surpassed that terrific effort on Saturday. Firstly, they were up against more formidable opposition and, on the biggest stage of all, there was an unfounded perception that the side’s limitations would be exposed.

Well, they fairly knocked that theory on its head, producing a 60 minute effort in which their hunger, determination and spirit was unwavering. Indeed, by the time referee Mike Kelly sounded the final whistle, their ascent to camogie’s Everest was complete.It was a climb that started from the lowest of bases after Castlegar failed to reach the knock-out stages of the 2011 county intermediate championship.

Lorraine Keane’s appointment as manager early last year, as Captain Donna Burke alluded to in her acceptance speech, raised hopes of an upward graph, but nobody could have foreseen that by the first week of March 2013, Castlegar would have secured a return to senior ranks and, even more importantly, that the All-Ireland Intermediate club championship title would be on its way west for the first ever time.

In any event, Aislinn Connolly raised the first white flag of the decider on nine minutes, but the midfielder had earlier squandered three scoreable frees and was made to suffer when Lizzie Lyng pounced for the opening goal of the contest thereafter.

Catriona Ryan put Lyng in the clear with a wonderfully timed pass and the Rower-Inistioge centre-forward duly obliged in finishing clinically beyond Eva Concannon from close range.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.