Playing for one of the country’s most prominent GAA clubs is tough enough as it is, but DCU camogie starlet Roisin Collins is hoping to bring her club championship experience with St. Vincents into this year’s campaign.
Collins, who is currently recovering from a knee injury, was disappointed with her Division 2 club championship final against Erin’s Isle.
“Obviously we would have liked to have won it. We put a lot of work into our campaign during the year, it was a great team effort but just on the day, we came up short in the end.
“I’ve not been able to play with DCU so far this year, but I’ve managed to try and keep in the loop as much as possible.”
After a fantastic campaign last time out in the Ashbourne Cup, the side are hoping to emulate their performances from last year and it seems they are going the right way about it.
The standard of camogie has drastically improved in DCU in recent years, what with winning two Purcell cup trophies and being involved at the highest level in the Ashbourne Cup last year.
Of course, a large number of the panel are inter-county camogie players and Collins believes that adapting to the intensity at the highest level won’t prove too difficult.
“I was watching a match last weekend and some of the talent that has come into the side, from the likes of Kilkenny and Tipperary is amazing. Everybody comes from a really strong background though.
“In the university they have different gym facilities. I know because we go to college every day we go to the gym in the morning. There’s seems to be an excellent set up in both St Vincents and DCU.”
A lot has been made of player welfare, mental as well as physical, and Collins was quick to compliment the help made available.
“Most importantly, we have all the support that we need. With this we can train and play at a higher level and go on to play in higher divisions as well.”
As with a lot women’s sport, however, the coverage hasn’t exactly saturated the market. This trend is something that Collins, among other sports women out there can be improved.
“Grassroots.ie have covered a few different things from the camogie side. It’s good to see when a lot of effort is put in to reporting what happened in the match.
“For the amount of work we put in, it’s nice to see the different write-ups and opinions out there.”
Cian Roche
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