Carlow Ladies more ready than ever claims captain Bermingham

Carlow Ladies Football captain Ruth Bermingham claimed her team are more ready than ever ahead of their All-Ireland Junior Championship semi-final with Antrim this afternoon.

“We feel we’ve never been as ready as we are now. We’re positive heading into Sunday because we’ve been doing well and if we stick to our system we feel we’ll be good to go,” she told FinalWhistle.ie.

Bermingham looked ahead to the game after what’s been a strong 2022 so far and pointed out that competing in the Leinster Intermediate Championship has helped with preparations. “We feel it has really stood to us playing at a higher division and playing those big teams,” she said.

The game takes place at 1:30pm at Lann Léire Gaelic Grounds in Dunleer, which is where the two sides also met at the same stage of the championship last year. Antrim got the better Carlow with a four-point victory after extra-time which saw them reach the Championship final only to lose to Wicklow in Croke Park.

Bermingham commented on the upcoming rematch as Ed Burke’s side plan to not only flip the result but also to do the job in normal time. “There’s not much between us and I think it will be a tight match again but hopefully we’ll have the job done in the first 60 minutes,” added the Carlow captain.

“I remember it being one of the hottest days of the year and everyone cramping up after 60 minutes with the game at a draw and thinking, do we actually have to go out and play another 20 minutes?”

It’s been a positive championship campaign so far for the Barrowsiders with wins against Derry and Fermanagh seeing them to where they are now, and on just her second year with the panel, Bermingham was given captaincy.

“I was quite shocked when I was asked but it’s been fantastic because of the girls being so great. Last year was my first year was the panel so that’s why I was shocked, but I’ve tried to lead by example and keep a positive camp and keep that sisterly love going.”

Her club Tinryland-Bennekerry are responsible for 10 players on the panel, which she noted has helped her with the leadership role. Bermingham, despite winning numerous county titles with Tinryland-Bennekerry including a Féile in 2010, never played with Carlow at underage, so the speed of her impact has been impressive.

Carlow were defeated by London two weeks ago but it didn’t effect their progression to the semi-final because of scoring differences and Derry dropping out, and Bermingham expressed how even those two weeks have felt like a long time in anticipation of Sunday. “It’s felt like a long time because we just wanted the day to come. We’re lucky though that there hasn’t been too much of a gap before the semi-final.”

The other side of the draw sees Limerick take on Fermanagh, who Carlow have already turned over this year in the Championship, and Bermingham pointed out that Ed Burke has really instilled a belief in the squad that they can go to Croke Park. She also spoke of the importance of balancing this belief with taking things one game at a time.

“Because no other Carlow team has got there, Ed wanted us to believe, but he also made sure from the start of the Championship that we take things one game a time.”