It is busy times forBallinhassig Camogie Club

In nearly 20 years representing Ballinhassig Camogie Club, Caitríona Collins has seen more than a few changes.

Next Saturday week sees Ballinhassig take on Inniscarra in the county premier intermediate championship – an early defeat to the mid-Cork side was followed by a win over Charleville, a draw with Ballinascarthy and then last week’s quarter-final triumph against Clonakilty.

Collins’ skills were forged in the back garden with her brothers Matthew, Michael, Patrick and Ger - little wonder, then, that she can appreciate how the game of camogie has evolved during her career.

“The girls are definitely stronger,” she says, “it's definitely fitter, stronger, faster.

“Even just in terms of the grades themselves, there's not a huge difference now between intermediate camogie and senior in terms of the standards.

“Definitely in terms of skill-level and strength, I would say – and games are let go a lot more now as well.

“It was very frustrating for us because, you know, we wanted to be treated just the same as guys were in terms of how we approached the game.

“To be able to let it flow then allowed us then to be able to get into tackles a bit stronger and a bit harder.”

In tandem with that has been Ballinhassig’s own growth as a club since its beginnings in 1988.

“We see there with the under-age, especially with the Cúl Camps and things like that, the numbers are insane,” Collins says.

“The new estate in the village helps and with new families coming in, it's great; it brings life into the parish.

“Where we are, just outside the city, it’s great. You can see it, we have two or three teams in different age-groups whereas, when I was younger, there were some ages where we were struggling to make a team.

“It’s great for the village as a whole.”

The club now boasts more than 300 members and recently a landmark weekend underlined the strides taken.

On the Friday evening, a special sponsor’s evening welcomes three new partners who have committed to supporting Ballinhassig over the next five years – Procure.ie, MSL Engineering, and Keohane Citymix, whose support will help further develop camogie opportunities for girls and young women throughout the community.

Representing the sponsors on the night were James O'Shea, founder of Procure.ie; Kevin O'Sullivan, commercial director of MSL Engineering; and Liam Keohane of Keohane Citymix. The evening was made even more special by the presence of Cork legends Patrick Horgan and Amy O'Connor.

The celebrations continued on Sunday with one of the largest events of the year. More than 200 young players from clubs across Cork came together for a hugely successful juvenile blitz and development day. Teams from Barryroe, St Finbarr's, Glen Rovers, Éire Óg, Sliabh Rua, Ballygarvan, Valley Rovers, Ballincollig, Traction, Ballinora and Ballinhassig participated in a fantastic showcase of skill, teamwork, and sportsmanship.

In time, the hope is that those young Ballinhassig stars will make the step up to the adult team. Collins was once a teenager thrown in like that, whereas now she is the elder stateswoman – from both sides of the spectrum though, she sees one cohesive blue unit.

“Even when I came in at 13, 14, there was no divide even as such in the ages – you were just a part of the adult set-up when that was kind of it,” she says.”

“Even the younger ones coming in, we don't even distinguish that they're the younger ones. You're now just a Ballinhassig player regardless of what age you are.”