“I think the potential we have is massive”- Niamh Gannon ahead of championship opener

By Paul Keane

This time last year, Niamh Gannon was getting ready to jet out to the US for a summer of fun.

The Dublin camogie defender took off on a J1 visa and, now in her sixth year in blue, is glad that she indulged her wanderlust because she feels as energised as ever at the start of another Championship campaign.

"I do think it was good for me, I came back and it was a nice reset," she said of the break at an event organised by Staycity Aparthotels who are supporting Dublin GAA in all four codes for the next five years.

The price to be paid for that trip of a lifetime was being unable to answer Dublin's call last summer. That was tough for the St Judes stalwart, particularly with a couple of sisters on the Dublin panel, and Gannon remembers the Leinster final against Kilkenny in particular. The sides were still level with 59 minutes on the clock after a Herculean Dublin effort. Kilkenny put on a late spurt and won by four in the end.

Back in blue for 2024, Gannon is at the heart of a team that's thriving and with the National League Division 1B title already tucked away, following a dramatic final defeat of Wexford, Dublin are armed with confidence and momentum heading into their latest Leinster campaign. They will host Meath on Saturday and that near miss against Kilkenny, in Kilkenny, allied to the more recent league success, has convinced Gannon that anything is possible this summer.

"I definitely think this is a tight group of players and I think the potential we have is massive," she said. "That 1B win, I think it's going to be extremely helpful for us. We're hopefully there, at that breakthrough point, as we push on now to the Leinster championship. That will be our next aim. I definitely think we have a chance to pick up more silverware."

Dublin beat Wexford, thanks in part to a late, late Grace O'Shea goal, to collect the Division 1B league title last month. Waterford did the same last year, overcoming Wexford in the 1B decider, and finished the year as All-Ireland runners-up, a good omen perhaps.

"We would obviously want to be in 1A playing against that higher standard but I think, and this may have helped Waterford last year too, just getting that win is so important," said Gannon.

"I think getting that belief that, you know, we were in the competition, we played the teams and beat all the teams that we had to beat, and we got the win. And okay, it's 1B, but we got the win and we can push on now and win more matches hopefully and start competing with the teams in 1A.

"We were in 1B but that's not going to hold us back during the Championship."

After the Leinster championship, Dublin will enter the All-Ireland race and are in a six-team Group 2 alongside Cork, Clare, Down, Wexford and Galway.

"We'll be playing against the Corks and the Galways but we have that bit more belief in ourselves now and I think that will stand to us," said Gannon.

"Even just with the way the league final went, we won it in the last minute nearly. Years before, when the other team got their goal, it might have been heads down, a case of 'We've put up a good fight but the match is over'. I just think that's changed this year, we have that belief that we're going to keep going."

Dublin's Group 2 campaign will begin in late May and a top-three finish is required to advance to an All-Ireland quarter-final at least. That's a clear target for the season for Dublin, according to Gannon.

"Yeah, definitely," she nodded. "Obviously it's a tough group but there are matches there that we definitely will target and, yeah, coming out of that group is a massive goal which we think is attainable. So that will be our focus."