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L osing last year's TG4 All-Ireland Junior final to Louth was a real tough day for all of Jonny Garrity's Fermanagh squad, but this year they are a year older and wiser, and are hellbent on making a return to the Intermediate grade for 2021. That aim will have to be achieved without former captain Áine McGovern, who is expecting her second child in the early weeks of 2021. The Kinawley player skippered the side when they ended the 2017 season as Junior champions, and while she has committed to stay on with the squad as vice-captain from the sidelines, she says it will be tough to watch the action. "This year will be weird watching on, but I'm going to stay involved with the team as a vice- captain," said McGovern. "In 2018 I didn't play either when I had my first baby, so I think I'll be used to it for this year. It was hard to watch but I really wish the girls all the best with it. "I'll be with them the whole way. As I said to them 'I'm building for the future of Fermanagh ladies football' so it's all good." If Fermanagh are to go one step better than last year, they first have to work their way though a novel looking Group A, which features Wicklow and Carlow. Relegated from Intermediate last season, Wicklow will pose a different test for Fermanagh, while they have recent knowledge of playing Carlow in the 2019 Lidl National League Division 4. And while a season of rebuilding straight after their last All-Ireland win came at the wrong time to stay solid as an Intermediate team, McGovern thinks the good work done since then has them in good shape ahead of the next few weeks' action. "Back in 2017, we looked to get regraded because we had lost so many players. Literally, we only had eight players from the previous years so we brought in a lot of young players. But as a team we just gelled really well together. We had a good Ulster campaign and managed to get through the All-Ireland Series. "We got to the final, and we had played Derry so many times. Every time we played them, Derry were improving. In the end they brought us to a replay on the day of the All-Ireland Final in Croke Park. We played again in Clones and we won it that day, which was amazing. It is one to remember, it was a massive occasion. "Once again we lost a few girls after that win, and in 2018 we were rebuilding again. Doing that up in Intermediate was tough. We couldn't stay up there. I wasn't involved in 2018, I had a child that season. I went back in for 2019 and we got to the All-Ireland, but it was a disappointing result for us. "I think during all the last four years we are going in the right direction. The fact that we got Clockwise: Hannah Noonan of London in action against Áine McGovern, Danielle Maguire and Róisín O'Reilly of Fermanagh during the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Junior Championship Semi-Final match between Fermanagh and London at St Tiernach's Park in Clones, Monaghan. Áine McGovern of Fermanagh with a shot on goal, despite the attempted tackle of Aoife McGough of Derry, during the TG4 Ladies Football All-Ireland Junior Championship Final Replay between Derry and Fermanagh. 34 | AUTUMN 2020 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie