Ladies boss Garrity eager to get started on new era for Leitrim

A new era for Leitrim Ladies football begins next Sunday when Jonny Garrity takes over the reins of the county senior team as the Green & Gold start the 2023 Lidl LGFA NFL Division 4 campaign with a home game against Derry (in Aughawillan on Sunday at 2pm).

The former All-Ireland Junior winner with his native Fermanagh, Garrity inherits a team from Hugh Donnelly that won back to back Connacht Intermediate titles and reached the Division 4 League Final in 2021 and semi-finals last year but it is safe to say that he is relishing the challenge!

“Absolutely,” was Jonny’s enthusiastic response to a query over his preference for taking over a Leitrim team with real ambitions, adding “We’d much prefer to come into a reasonably good situation rather than the one Hugh himself faced when he took over. Any ambitions we have of progressing is made all the more doable by the fact that Hugh has a lot of the hard work done, which is brilliant but there has been a sizable turnover this year.”

His initial impression of the talent he has to work with are favourable: “It is a coachable group of players that are very keen to progress so I think when you’ve got that, you’ve always got the ability to develop the group and we’re going in with a lot of optimism. There is no shortage of talent and we’re really looking forward to the games beginning.

“I think it is fair to say that there has been a good response from the girls and the majority of the squad has been out early and they’re in a position that they’re ready to hit the ground running next Sunday.

“There is probably a group of seven or eight players who are a few weeks behind, having come into the squad a little bit later after an extended rest following the club season. Those players may not be ready but they’ll certainly be making up panels and getting game time over the first couple of matches.”

Leitrim Ladies Manager Jonny Gerrity.

With Leitrim desperate to get out of Division 4 and again make a push for All-Ireland Intermediate glory, Jonny prefers to focus on the team’s potential rather than baldly stating targets - even if he admits that he expects Leitrim to be very competitive in Division 4.

“My targets would not be so much about the competitions or where you finish but how you play and what you’re doing.

“For me, it is about trying to reach potential and that will be the big target, about bringing the best out of the group. If we can do that, then realistically we can be looking at every competition as one where we can be competitive and looking to win.

“That’s the way we will be going into it - I’d imagine at this point in time, Leitrim have respect for Division 4 because getting out of it has been such a huge job over the course of the last number of years.

“There are teams down there that are fantastic teams - we saw Antrim in the Junior championship last year and Fermanagh who they beat in the final. Wicklow are a good team, Limerick are a good team, Carlow on their day are good and there is nobody who will be an easy match.

“We go in with complete respect for the opposition but at the same time, we believe that our performances will be worthy of the respect of the other teams as well. I’d be very keen to be competitive in the League.”

To that end, the mantra of “one game at a time” will be adopted for the League: “We want to get off to a good start but we’ll be taking it one game at a time. Very much our focus is on Derry and everything that we’re doing is going into that match.

“Then we’ll focus on Kilkenny once that is over and the same goes for the match after that and after that. We’re happy to have more home fixtures than away but ultimately these are things that are out of our control so we don’t worry about those kinds of things.

“We control what we can control and try to get the best performance we can and that’s what we’re looking for right now.”

One of those factors is the anomaly that Division 4 is divided into two groups with only four games for Leitrim, something Jonny rather didn’t happen: “When you do considering there is a sizeable break or two throughout the national league, you’d question why they didn’t run the full round of fixtures.

“Even if there is an extra round, because there is an extra team in division four, given the amount of free weekends, you’d have thought there was room to do that. In their defence, they have put in a semi-final where the other divisions go straight into a final. We would certainly hope that we avail of that match if we get the results that we are setting out to get.”

Yet behind all the planning for matches and training, you sense that Garrity very much enjoys the task he is facing: “It is one of those things - if you enjoy work, you’ll never work a day in your life as the saying goes and that would be the case for me.

The travelling is tiring when it comes to getting back at 11.30 at night from training and being up again the next morning but at the same time, I’m not complaining.

“I’m doing what I love and I’m doing it with an enthusiastic bunch of girls who give me motivation and energy to do it.

“The County Board have been absolutely brilliant in supporting me as well so all things considered, I’m just delighted to be here - we’re all putting in a big effort to ensure the product on the field is as good as it possibly can be.”