Meabh Cahalane on being named Cork camogie captain: It's an honour to lead such a special group

In 1985 Castlehaven star Niall Cahalane was named captain of the Cork football team.

History repeats itself 30 years on as his daughter, Meabh, has been named captain of the Cork senior camogie team.

She was vice-captain last year and will have learned a lot from that experience as she officially takes the armband this season.

Cork will start their Division 1A National League campaign next Saturday against Waterford, throw-in 2pm, at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

She was delighted to be named captain, the first of the Cahalane siblings to be named a senior one for Cork.

“It's a huge honour for myself, my club, and for my family and obviously just a huge honour to be captain on behalf of all the girls, they're really special group, so yeah, delighted.

“I think Castlehaven on X put up a few pictures from when my dad was captain. So hopefully good things to come,” said Meabh.

They didn’t make the league final last year, missing out on ultimate honours and it was the only one of the three trophies they could win that they didn’t.

They went on to win the Munster and All-Ireland championships, but Meabh said they were disappointed not to have made the league final last season.

“I think last year going into the league, we wouldn't have overlooked it. We obviously prepared well for it and we were probably a bit disappointed that we didn't go a bit further. But you know we those tough games really stood to us over the season.

“We went into the Munster championship and had a few injuries that were back and then we gradually peaked at the right time and I suppose got another few players back along the way.

TOUGH

“We needed them all as the final against Galway at Croke Park was such a tough game. We've said it so many times that it just showed how strong our panel was the players sprung from the bench that day had a huge impact.

“I suppose that was a credit to all the hard work that they've done all year and showed how important the panel is. 

We have a couple of new players in this year now and they will make it even more competitive in training and help to drive us on.

“They're all pushing the standards in training, they're not coming in playing catch up. You can even see they're well at the standard already. So there's huge competition for places every night of training, you're marking someone different and there's different challenges in that.”

She may not be one of the new players to the panel but Meabh was delighted to see her fellow defender, Libby Coppinger, back from injury that kept her out for most of last season.

“It’s great to see Libby back and flying it, she just has that leadership quality and is such a good communicator and obviously she can back that up with her skill and her athleticism.

“Libby’s a huge player for us, as she is for the ladies footballers, so it's great to see her back from such a big injury and going so well.”

Turning her thoughts to Waterford Meabh added: “We went up to Waterford last year and just about got over the line that day and Saturday will be no different. They have added another couple of players, and had a couple of players in the Ashbourne Cup who played well.

“So they won't be coming down here just to trot around. They’ll be coming with their A game and we'll just have to match that and better it to win, and hopefully it'll be a great game.”