Manager Garrity searches for marginal gains as Leitrim stay unbeaten

Unbeaten after three games into their Lidl LGFA NFL Division 4 campaign, Jonny Garrity nevertheless remains insistent that Leitrim are still searching for the marginal gains that will make a difference at the business end of the League campaign.

Leitrim secured a comfortable 5-10 to 2-7 victory over neighbours Sligo in Ballinamore last Sunday, avenging last year’s loss at the hands of the Yeatswomen but the Leitrim boss (pictured inset)  gave an insight into the mindset driving the ladies team as he insisted his team would give strugglers Kilkenny the same respect as they do for any other team!

“It is a game you'd expect to win,” said Jonny when asked about Leitrim’s next game against the Cats, adding “but again it's a game that we will pay them the respect that they deserve and we'll go out and  try to ensure that the preparation is as good as possible and that the performance is as good as possible and we go out and win the game on merit.”

The game against Kilkenny is not until Sunday February 15, the Division 4 teams enjoying a break after three weekends on the trot and it was there that Garrity made his point about searching for the extra inches that make the difference in the pursuit of glory: “Having a couple of weeks run into that will give us the opportunity to catch our breath a wee bit.

“It is an intense time, it's seven games in eight weeks so the week off, when it does come, is a scant sort of respite, it is a few sessions and you're away again. So we'll be looking to see if there's any improvements we can take from this - as always we'll search out for those wee marginal gains.”

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It was in that vein that the Leitrim boss agreed there were small bits and pieces his team would have to tidy up but overall, Garrity was a very happy man with the performance: “There were wee bits that we can clean up on and some of those things we rectified over the course of the match, so we're delighted about that. 

“Other things maybe crept in over the course of the game, just wee bits of untidy play but I think that all of that sort of fades away in comparison to the good things we did. I thought we were excellent in our directness at times and Sligo couldn't handle that today.”

That directness comes from allowing players exploit situations as they see fit: “We've given the girls the autonomy to make the decisions out there and be creative so they play what they see. If it is the case where you're playing against a double sweeper or a packed defence, it might be that we're more conservative.

“If we feel that we've got kicking opportunities, the girls have the freedom to utilise their kicking skills and put it in early and accurately and I think most of the time we've done that today and we got great joy from it.”

Having lost 2-11 to 1-11 to Sligo in last year’s League, Jonny feels that Leitrim have answered a few questions from last year’s campaign: “Looking back on last year, it's difficult not to make a comparison and say that for a team that beat us last year, we really sped away from them and had a degree of comfort in what we were doing today.

“Combined with the win in the  Longford game in the opening round, a team that drew with us last year so we're going about rectifying some things that we feel that we could rectify and that puts us in a really strong position.”

With victories over three of the strongest teams in the division, Jonny admits Leitrim are on course for qualifying for the semi-finals but will not take anything for granted: “We're on course but we're not too concerned. At this point we are in a great position to qualify for the semi-finals but now the next thing is how well can we qualify. 

“We want to win all the games. We want to win the next game - it is always looking towards the next game only with the aim to try to finish as high in the table as we can and, in theory, that'll give us the most favourable opposition in the semi-final. So that's the way we're working, we're working very much concentrating on the next game.”