Saoirse Noonan: We need to put our heads down and prepare for Galway

So far it has been a disappointing season for the Cork senior camogie side as they escaped relegation in the league when Antrim lost out to Kilkenny in their final game.

That was followed by a quarter-final loss to Tipperary in the Munster knock-out championship which now means they have no competitive game until early June.

There has been a lot of change within the squad this year with at least six starting players from last year no longer available to manager Ger Manley and his selectors.

Saoirse McCarthy has been one of the star players now for several years and said there has been lots of change this year, but they are far from throwing in the towel.

“100% change is probably the word, but sometimes change is for the better as well. We struggled early on, but we’re not throwing all our toys out of the pram. We have to keep our heads down and keep trucking along. 

"There's a full championship to play yet, and we're just looking forward to that now.”

Saoirse was speaking at the launch of a new range of sportswear designed specifically for female bodies, as it launched its debut range.

Féirla, founded by physiotherapist Margaret Walsh, is tackling the shortcomings of traditional GAA kits by designing shorts that meet the needs of women athletes - empowering them to keep playing the game they love.

LITTLE THINGS

McCarthy, who is a Féirla ambassador, said: “As a player, I know firsthand how much the little things can affect your confidence on the pitch. Féirla is the sportswear we always needed but never had - designed for us by someone who really gets it.”

This year for the first time all four Munster (camogie, ladies football, hurling and football) were all launched together and Saoirse feels that is the way forward.

“It's brilliant and well deserved. 

This has been years in the making and we're working towards the whole integration of all, and this is just another step in the right direction.”

She also feels that the potential is now there for the camogie championship to become a round-robin one like the others and maybe should be looked at in the coming years.

“I think historically there probably wasn't enough competitive teams at senior level to play a round robin in the Munster championship, but at this stage now, you know, you have Limerick, Clare, Waterford, ourselves, Tipp, and Kerry are coming up as well, so there's definitely more competition there and it could be definitely something that could be looked at.”

Double headers are now becoming more of the norm with men’s games, like Cork’s clash with Tipp at FBD Semple Stadium.

However, Saoirse does feel that the camogie game is still not being marketed well enough and is in the ‘small print’ when it comes to the double-headers.

“I think it should be advertised as a double header. I feel like the camogie can sometimes fall into the fine print a small bit, and people don't know about it.

“So I suppose they're still a work in progress, but it's a step in the right direction. Everybody wants to be playing on a Munster championship day. I just wish we could have performed better on the day. 

When you're younger and you dream about playing for Cork, they're the kind of days that you dream about.”

For now, Saoirse said they have to put the league and Munster championship behind them and prepare for their clash with Galway in June in the All-Ireland series.

Research has shown that Ireland is losing its female athletes at a dramatic rate with one in five girls dropping out of sport between primary and post-primary school. While the causes underlying this drop are multifaceted, one factor has gone unaddressed: the kits girls are expected to play and compete in were never designed for them.

Young girls and women navigating puberty, menstruation, changing bodies or post-partum have traditionally been handed sportswear that was designed for a male body - sized down and minimally adapted - and told to simply get on with it.

Walsh was inspired to create Féirla not simply as a sportswear brand, but as part of a wider movement to break down barriers for girls in sport and help keep more young women playing for longer.

The full Féirla collection, with prices starting from €30, is available at www.feirla.com.