Ladies Inter Pros

Thursday 19.01.2017

County

LADIES FOOTBALL

Ulster Schools face into Inter Pros 

The Ulster Colleges ladies team will attempt to claim the inter-provincial title this Saturday when, bolstered by eleven players from Tyrone, a squad of thirty head to County Westmeath for this year’s series.

Three Tyrone schools and players from the county based at schools in Derry and Fermanagh will line out in the thirty girl squad with hopes high that Ulster are in with a real chance of collecting the title after missing out in the Shield final last year.

The build up for Ulster though has been hampered as St Ciaran’s College had their attention on an Ulster under 20 semi-final against Loreto Cavan on Thursday. Hopes were that the cohort of players from the Ballygawley school would come through that A grade semi-final without any injury worries. Loreto Omagh are also well represented in the Ulster squad confirmed just ahead of Christmas.

The selection process for the Colleges panel was altered this year. A series of trials followed by challenge games gave Ulster as good a preparation as possible  with the local squad keen to make a mark on the competitive schools series. They reached the shield final last year before losing to Connacht.

Tyrone’s group of players named in the squad includes a handful of players who have also been playing with the County’s senior side since last season. There are players set to step up to the senior ranks this term, before that though the focus for them will be the inter pros on Saturday. It will be a tight schedule of back to back games this weekend and with Tyrone due to play Monaghan on Sunday with minor trials also in the pipeline for the bulk of the Tyrone eleven.

Ulster will be spearheaded up front by a Tyrone driven forward trio Maria Canavan, Roisin Devlin and Tyrone senior championship top scorer from 2016 Chloe McCaffrey. Caoimhe Meeke from Cookstown a student at St Mary’s Magherafelt could also play a key role for the province.

The Tyrone girls named for this weekend…
Tara O Hagan – St Ciaran’s Ballygawley
Chloe McCaffrey – St Ciaran’s Ballygawley
Caoimhe Meeke – St Mary’s Magherafelt
Dearbhaile Gallagher – Mount Lourdes Enniskillen
Shannon Stevenson – St Ciaran’s Ballygawley
Roisin Devlin – Loreto Omagh
Meabh Corrigan – St Ciaran’s Ballygawley
Sasha Byrne – Loreto Omagh
Aoibheann Mc Hugh – Loreto Omagh
Maeve Maxwell – St Patrick’s, Dungannon
Maria Canavan – St Ciaran’s Ballygawley