I think the girls genuinely believe now says Garrity as Leitrim plot All-Ireland triumph

Belief is a curious thing in sport - you won’t win without it but oftentimes, you need to win to believe you can go further. That’s certainly a concept that Jonny Garrity would embrace as Leitrim head into next Sunday’s TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Championship Final in Croke Park against Tyrone.

The dreaded question, are you confident of victory, was met with a typical forthright response from the Leitrim manager at the Leitrim LGFA Press night: “Yeah, I am confident going in and I genuinely, genuinely believed before a ball was kicked in the championship, I genuinely believed that this team could win the All-Ireland.

“I’m not sure if the girls believed it in their hearts but game by game, I think they believe it now. They’ve shown everybody, not least themselves and each other, that they are a team capable of not only being at this level but of excelling at this level. Now we’ve got to the final against a team we’ve already beaten so why wouldn’t we be confident?”

That’s one of the challenges of management, instilling belief, just as introducing and implementing a new gameplan takes time but the hard work and heartbreak of 2023 is now paying off in 2024 according to Garrity: “Probably the message is a little bit more automatic in the girls’ mind this year as much as it is becoming a habit and their go-to in terms of how they play the game and even think. 

“It is not automatic -  you are trying to train and retrain people’s line of thought, really get that game plan implemented and it does take time, it takes repetition - some really intelligent footballers might clock onto it straight away; others might take a wee bit of time and I think as collective, it is not something that happens overnight. 

GARRITY WANTS LEITRIM TO STRIKE A BALANCE AHEAD OF CROKE PARK FINAL

“It is more likely to happen in your second year rather than your first but in saying that, we were really close last year when you think back to that Wexford quarter-final, there was a kick of a ball in that one and it was a game that we left feeling that we didn’t play particularly well. If we had maybe found another one or two percent that year, we could have found ourselves sitting in a semi-final that we find ourselves in this year.”

Perfectionist that he is, Jonny wasn’t particularly happy with aspects of the semi-final victory over Wexford but the manager  is determined that Leitrim take advantage of the opportunity in front of them: “Even this year, we got over the line but we wouldn’t have been ecstatic with the performance, we knew it could have blown up in our faces as well.

“It is small margins and you are relying on every wee thing going your way to get over the line on days like the semi-final but we are there and we are delighted to be there and are determined to take advantage of the opportunity we have earned.”

One of those small margins has been the razor thin squad Garrity is working with - just 25 players are on the squad and one of those, Vivienne Egan, won’t play any part in Sunday’s Final due to injury. But in a strange, perverse way, Jonny believes that it has actually worked in Leitrim’s favour!

“It has worked in our favour but it is a high risk game. We’re not doing it by choice - we didn’t have a meeting at the start of the year and say we’re going to operate with a really small panel this year. There are advantages to it - if you’ve got the right people in, it can be a really tight group and that is the case.

“We have been lucky with regard to injury - I know we have lost out on Viv with a long term injury, which is really unfortunate, but apart from that, we’ve had niggles, a few ones that we are managing but we have come through it really well. I think we’re always two or three injuries away from a crisis with a squad this small but we’ve managed to get through it and that’s brilliant.”

At times, it has been a tough challenge but Jonny credits his players for adapting to the situation: “It has been a challenge, both this pre-season and the first pre-season, getting the players we want out and maybe, I don’t know if it is past experiences going back over the years, many years, certainly no reflection on Hugh or the last regime who did brilliant but maybe there were players who were turned off county. 

“There was a lot of retirements, girls travelling, loads of different reasons, girls studying but you’ve got to manage what you’ve got and we’re delighted with the ways they have galvanised, given everything and we wouldn’t be in this position if only they had done that.”

Yet Jonny believes the struggles this year may pay off next year: “I would like to think that the season next year will see a lot of girls making themselves available that we haven’t had and that we will have a bigger squad, a bigger pick and probably the strongest squad of the three years if it goes according to plan, so that’s really exciting.”

Next Sunday sees Leitrim face two unique challenges - facing a Tyrone team they’ve already played and playing in Croke Park but Jonny believes his players can adapt to both: “Playing in Croke Park is almost a different game, a different sport almost. In your transition from defence to attack, there is almost another whole kick in it - it changes how you play your game. 

CHARLENE HEADING BACK TO CROKE PARK WITH LEITRIM AFTER 17 YEARS

“You can transfer your game from pitch to pitch quite easily at times, it might be different on a smaller, tighter pitch as opposed to a wider pitch but then there is Croke Park, it is a different beast. I’ve been lucky enough to manage there in the past, I learned so much that day and we will bring a lot of learnings from that experience. 

“The flip side to that is what has been learned the last day we played Tyrone, we learned that they are a very good team - we certainly knew that before the match and we certainly knew it after. I think it is going to be useful for the players in terms of knowing who they are going to be coming up against and what kind of footballers they are going to be marking and that is always useful but Tyrone will have the same advantage. 

“Ultimately, whatever advantage you will get from having faced them already, it will cancel itself out because they’re going to get it as well. It will come down to the day again so we will have to go out and have to win the battles, force our game plan on the game. It will be all there for both teams and it is up to us to go and make it happen on the day.”