Beth Carton and her Waterford teammates are in a do-or-die game this weekend against Derry in Walsh Park in effectively an All-Ireland Preliminary Quarter-Final, with the winners booking their spot into the last eight.
Speaking upon being named the PwC Player Of The Month in camogie for April, the De La Salle sharpshooter acknowledged their mixed season needs to improve if they want to return to the All-Ireland final.
“We have been mixed so far, with one loss, one win, and one draw, so there is plenty to learn from. We still have to win at the weekend to qualify. We knew we could be in this position, so it’s a big game for us to make a quarter-final on Saturday. We have plenty to learn from each game, and there are plenty of championship matches, so that’s what you want,” Carton said.
“Peaking for the Munster final is a crucial aspect of our strategy. We had the first round of the championship the week after, so we had a nice few weeks in a row there. As a player, more games are always welcome, and reaching a Munster final is a goal in itself. The key is to time it right, and that's what we're focused on,
In camogie, you have to be prepared to play every team and expect the best from yourself. Whether you're up against Kilkenny, Cork, or Galway, if you don’t expect to win, it won't go well for you. We maintain high standards and understand the calibre of players we compete against. To compete, we have to be at our very best.”
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Getting Over Last Season’s All-Ireland Final Loss
It's tough to get over any All-Ireland loss, but this Waterford team is a ‘tight-knit’ group that uses the pre-season to discuss any issues going forward into the new season. For Carton personally, how did preparation and the club help her get back on track?
“We’re a very tight-knit group, so getting back to pre-season training was massive for us, even as a group. We talked about it to park it, and it was important to get back to playing the top teams to prove that we were not that far off. Talking about it was big for us. Once we had that done, it was about parking. Moving forward, we're in a new year now and are focusing on what's ahead of us,” the 2023 Camogie Player of the Year said,
“For me, a big thing would be having the preparation done. I think it's massive for me. I know if you have your preparation done on the day, I know somedays it doesn’t happen—that’s sport—but if you have everything done and you know your hard work is done, and if you go out and work hard, that takes the pressure off in terms of you knowing there's nothing else that could have been done,
“That’s what I enjoy doing in the week, whether in the ball alley, hitting your free, or going training. It doesn’t even feel like hard work in a way then as well, which is massive for me. I think if you find that hard work, you would be struggling to keep on doing it week after week, so for me, a big thing is preparation and making sure that all is a line. To be honest, if I didn’t have that done before going out playing I would find it very hard,
It was a very few hard weeks in general, but we were lucky that the club wasn’t coming too far. And we got away for a few days and then went back in with the club. You're in a new set-up and have no choice but to get on with it. The club girls were great to rally around, and we were very lucky to have such a good club to return to. Thank god we went on to win the county title, so that helped with a tough winter,
But there were a few days after that week when you didn’t want to see or talk to anyone because that’s all they wanted to discuss. Even at home, you are avoiding people, but look it, I think we were lucky we were able to throw ourselves back into the club season, and that was a serious set-up as well, so you're enjoying it. For me, that was massive, and when it was time to go back in with the girls and go back at it again,
It’s hard to compare. I do think we're not in a bad spot. The girls have put a tremendous effort in like counties have, so you can't fault any of them; I think everyone is trying their very best, so I think we will know much more on Saturday about where we are.”
27 June 2024; PwC GPA Player of the Month for April in camogie, Beth Carton of Waterford, with her award at PwC's offices in Cork. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
