Niamh Rice confident Louth Ladies will bounce back from relegation

Niamh Rice has been one of Louth’s most potent attackers ever since she made the step up to adult inter county football in 2018.

She was there when they won the Junior in 2019 and has seen the Wee County make it to two consecutive quarter finals, testing Laois and Roscommon, since making the jump to Intermediate Football.

While they have been on upward curve in recent years, Saturday evening saw Louth hitting a first real low point in quite some time, as their loss to Roscommon meant they were relegated to Junior for 2024.  

Heartbreak for Louth Ladies as Roscommon defeat sees them relegated to Junior

“At half time coming into the dressing room I pretty much thought we had it” noted Rice when speaking exclusively to the Democrat not long after the final whistle. At that stage they were just a point behind.

“We certainly had the opportunities to do it in the second half and we just didn’t take them. It is very disheartening after all the effort we put in over the last few years to be in this position.”

What made matters worse was that unlike their previous match with Kildare, where they stayed in touch but never looked likely to beat the Lilywhites, against Roscommon they were always confident of getting a result.

Rice was the Wee County’s most potent threat, particularly via her solo running, but the Cooley Kickhams clubwoman was struggling to find many positives in her performance as she reflected back on the game.

“I was just trying my hardest to drive at them, put them under pressure, but at the end of the day whatever I did do wasn’t good enough as we weren’t good enough as a unit either. Fair play to Roscommon, they just were and that’s the difference.

“There were a few very important opportunities that we didn’t take as Roscommon put us under serious pressure. They were in a semi-final last year and I’m sure they were pushing as much as we were to stay up.

“But this is just annoying given the progress we have been making. We came out of Junior because we were good enough to be here and I still do believe we are good enough to be at this grade. It is just we had a bad run of games, which has carried into this tie too.”

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Not one to look back, the DKIT student was confident that Louth can make a quick return to the Intermediate ranks. A chance to play at GAA HQ again and win more silverware being enough of a motivator to get this talented group through what is sure to be a long winter of reflection.

“We can get back to Croker if we put our minds to it. There are a few good minors coming through who have been training with us over the last few weeks.

"They will be good assets to come into the panel. We just have to keep working and start all over again.”