BRONAGH DEVLIN REFLECTS ON ANTRIM’S LIDL NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION 4 TITLE WIN
By DAIRE WALSH
A strong attacking contingent from St Ergnat’s Moneyglass had a lot to do with Antrim’s 1-19 to 2-6 Division Four League win over Leitrim earlier in the year.
Thanks to the late inclusion of Maria O’Neill, the entire full-forward line selected by Saffrons manager Emma Kelly hailed from the Loughbeg Road club. While O’Neill came away with a final haul of 0-4, Orlaith Prenter (0-8) and Bronagh Devlin (1-1) also kept the scoreboard ticking over for the Ulster side.
Team captain Cathy Carey was another Moneyglass player within the Antrim attack and she made her presence felt with three excellent points. A key figure on their march to a TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship last year, Devlin was pleased the telepathic understanding that the quartet enjoyed at club level was on full display in the north Dublin venue.
“We all work very well together. It’s not the same positions we play together in Moneyglass, but we all know each other very, very well. I think Maria had a brilliant second half, she scored four points. She was getting into it then. Again, everybody knows everybody very well and they can play with anybody,” Devlin explained in the aftermath of her team’s win.
“It just so happened that it was Moneyglass and played in our favour a wee bit. Once Orlaith is on the ball, you know that the ball is in safe hands. It’s either going over the bar or it’s a perfect pass where you want the ball to be. She’s definitely on a roll. Hopefully she keeps it up at the minute.”
Like almost everybody on the Antrim panel, Devlin has taken – and continues to take – inspiration from the exploits of Carey. A senior debutant for the Saffron County as far back as 2002, the operations manager won All-Ireland junior crowns with her county in 2009 and 2012 prior to adding a third success at that grade in 2022.
Long before she counted her as a team-mate, Devlin was one of several future stars under the wing of Carey in her role as a juvenile coach.
“Cathy, she definitely pulls the strings for both teams [Moneyglass and Antrim]. You could say it’s nearly like a quarter back role that she plays and gets on a lot of scores herself. Her presence on any team, you kind of don’t really want to not impress her, to be honest. Her presence is great on the pitch.
“Even growing up through the age groups, we were very lucky that we had Cathy taking us for coaching and things like that. Coming up through minor and things like that. You do see a so-called role model playing for your club and county. You’re watching them and then coming on and taking the underage coming up through, helping them progress like she had.”
While all of 10 points separated the sides in the end, it wasn’t until deep into the second half that Antrim were truly assured of their victory against a hard-working Leitrim outfit. In fact, their Connacht counterparts held a slender advantage during the early exchanges, but Devlin’s fourth minute goal at the end of a fine team move proved to be an ideal tonic.
“Definitely for myself it settled the nerves and for the rest of the team. It kind of sets the tone a wee bit. We played to our abilities a wee bit better after that there.”
Despite having a number of championship triumphs to their name, this encounter represented a first-ever league final win for Antrim. Having previously come up short in the Division 4 showpieces of 2014, 2016 and 2019, they finally got over the line.
Although she wasn’t involved in any of these games, Devlin recognises how important it is for Antrim to have secured Division 3 football for 2024.
“Last year we wanted to obviously get out of Division Four and when that didn’t happen our next aim was to win the All-Ireland. Then this year especially, our big, big aim was to get out of Division Four into Division Three and keep progressing. We’re definitely stepping in the right direction to keep on going.”
That is still some way in the future, of course, and for now Devlin and her Saffron colleagues are looking forward to leaving a lasting impression on the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship.
“We’ll definitely be going in, you would say, as underdogs, but we’re hoping to take that name away from ourselves and going in to cause a bit of an upset into the championship. It’s new territory for us and we’ll see how we get on, but we’re hoping to cause a bit of an upset in the championship,” Devlin added.