NA FIANNA’S Roisin Baker does not fear the challenge posed in this Sunday’s Littlewoods Camogie League Division 1 opener, with All-Ireland champions Galway standing in their way at the TUD Blanchardstown Campus (2pm).
It’s a new era for Dublin Camogie with a new management team, including Cualaman John Treacy taking charge of the seniors for the first time in a competitive game.
Baker is excited by what’s ahead as she looks set to captain the side.
“We are playing each game one at a time, and there’s no point in looking too far ahead,” she told Dublin Gazette.
“We haven’t thought about Limerick and Tipperary yet. We are just focussing on ourselves and getting set for the Galway game.
“Somebody has to play the All-Ireland Champions first, so I suppose we hope to catch them on the hop.
“Hopefully, we have ourselves prepared and we play our game plan and it will be good enough to see us through.”
Baker says pre-season has gone well: “We have had a great start to the year; the lads have had everything really organised and outlined what they wanted for the year.”
“We are in the gym; we have a good home base out in the Sports Campus in Abbotstown, which is really good for us to have a set location that we know our times – that’s a change from last year.
“We were mixing and matching a bit last year. It’s good to have a good base and a good foundation laid.
“We have a great management in place. John is a man with years of experience behind him and Willie [Braine] has proven himself with the Premier Juniors.
“He took them to a final in his first year, and then went on to win the final the following year. He did some good work with the minors as well last year.
“They are both people that the girls can get in behind and the girls have as well so far.
“There are plenty of new girls to get to know as well this year. It’s been great. We have bonded really well as a team so far.
“We haven’t lost too many players at all – we just have new girls in. A lot of girls came up from the intermediate team, and a lot of the girls have stepped up like the Couchs, Siofra Walsh have come up now.”
2019 was a year to write-off for Dublin, but Baker says there’s plenty to draw on in terms of positives from the past.
“We have always have good bits in games to show, and in some games then we might come out and have a bad performance,” she said.
“It’s about getting consistency and trying to get everything right and hopefully we can put out a good performance.
“We trust that if we can put out those good performances, then we will get the results.”
