Trainor hoping to make Merry at last in Croker

The sense of renewed hope that comes with the commencement of each season is familiar to most of us that ever laced up a pair of boots, or follow a team. Players are not immune and it would be very hard for the majority to keep at it otherwise.

There are various levels, of course, and getting so close but not getting over the line might be viewed by some as a first world issue.

That said, it doesn't take a psychology degree to understand the price of being immersed in what at times of despair can seem a Sisyphean task. Of having hopes raised, of reaching final after final, and just not getting the job done.

People talk of deserving in such instances. The word doesn’t exist in the lexicon of those that inhabit elite environments. But as Florence Welch memorably warbles, it’s always darkest before the dawn. And when the sun rises, it invariably brings with it a feeling of respair.

So it is with the Armagh camogie team, and particularly with the panel’s most experienced members.

There is nobody more experienced than Rachael Trainor, who joined the squad as Rachael Merry 14 years ago, before getting married to Aidy Trainor. They celebrate their second anniversary this week. There was no consideration of marking this new phase with the conclusion of another.

The Granemore sharpshooter remains pivotal to her side’s hopes and has been central to their march to Sunday’s Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Premier Junior final against Cavan (12pm throw-in, live on RTÉ2).

She was part of the team that beat the same opponents in the Covid decider of 2020 – she added an All-Ireland club junior medal with Granemore three years later in Kinnegad - but really, what has kept the athletic finisher coming back is the desire to climb the steps of the Hogan Stand.

Four times she has had to look up at her opponents make that ascent, wait respectfully for a speech before escaping for the sanctuary of the dressing room. If she thought it would happen at some stage when falling short in 2016, she and her colleagues encountered stronger opposition at Croke Park in 2021, 2022 and 2025.

But back they came, with Trainor front and centre, joined by a mix of veterans and youngsters, the latter with little or no scar tissue. She gives a glimpse of how restorative the brain can be if it’s not conditioned to negativity when considering what lies ahead.

"This is our fifth final in seven seasons," says Trainor. "Actually, I read that somewhere. Didn’t even realise that."

So no lingering nightmares there. What’s more, she says the enjoys the build-up. And here’s another hint as to the positivity that is her default setting.

"It’s not a given that you’re going to get to final, so just getting here is still a massive privilege. Everyone’s still over the moon. There’s a lot of new girls who might not have got to Croke Park before. So there’s still a lot of excitement. And the rest of us are still delighted to be back there.

"I still love it, and I’m still chasing that win. To be honest, we’re just hoping that this year we’ll get over the line, but we know there’s a massive challenge ahead of us."

Aidy plays football, and Rachael has worn the tangerine and white geansaí in the big-ball code also, but in her house, there was only one sport. Her mother, Rosemary, played camogie for Monaghan and Ulster, and so when the time came, the hobby was dropped in favour of the life source.

So while she was enjoying it, while she was contributing and while there was the big dream still to realise, a wedding band was going to bring the quest to an end.

"No, 100% not. That was never my intention to quit just because I got married. 100% not.

"Eimear Hayes, now Eimear Harvey, she would have been up the years with me. She’s only after getting married there in December as well. Ciara Geoghegan, who was previously Ciara Donnelly – she would have been there. She had a she had two babies, and she took a year or two out. So she’s back in this year. So a few of the few of the old faces are still knocking around. But yeah, a lot of them have gone."

Geoghegan scored one of the greatest goals ever seen at HQ a decade ago. Ciara Hill and Ciarrai Devlin are the two other survivors from that defeat by Carlow. Clearly, they share a motivation.

"We obviously did win that one in Covid, but it sort of didn’t feel the same. There was no people there. Some teams weren’t able to enter. It just was sort of one - I don’t know - you put kind of to the back of your mind. Probably it’s not the same as winning an All-Ireland in Croke Park. It is obviously still an All-Ireland that we were very appreciative of. But you’re still chasing that one for Croke Park. You’re still chasing the big one.

"There were a couple of years, obviously, it would have been hard to lift your heads up and go again, but we’ve kept a lot of our team from last year. I think we just sort of regrouped in October, November. We do believe that this is in us. The want’s still there, and the drive’s still there.

"The likes of Fiadhna Loughran and Ciara McGeary were fresh on the team after last year’s minors won in April and were probably unlucky not to start the final last year. But they’re seasoned players now. Fiadhna is now centre-half back and has been all year.

"The increase in them in one year is night and day. Just how much they’ve progressed, and last year will stand to them massively, and the other minors that might not have been on the team. Everyone’s driving each other on."

PJ O’Mullan (above) knows the squad far better after his inaugural season as manager, and seeing Laois go all the way to the intermediate final this term would certainly make them feel better about last year’s loss, when she herself was captain.

Cavan beat them in the group stages but that was 10 weeks ago now. Trainor is happy to foist favouritism on them but representing her people is a driver she hopes will get Armagh over the line this time.

"Winning the All-Ireland with Granemore was probably one of the best days of my life, to be honest. It was unreal. Just winning anything with your club is massive, but to win in All-Ireland was unreal. It’s hard to even describe how good it was because you’re doing it with girls you grew up with.

"My club in general is from a tiny, tiny, wee village, but there’s actually eight of us. We are the biggest club represented on the county team. We’re probably one of the smallest clubs in Irma but we don’t see ourselves as small and we don’t see Armagh as being small in terms of camogie.

"We think we’re as good as everybody else, and why not us? Why can we not win? So we definitely don’t have the mindset of being small in terms of camogie in a bigger football county. We think we’re more than good enough."

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