Roche is ambitious but knows to take one game at a time

Kildare will begin life in the Camogie Premier Junior Championship 2026 with a trip to Armagh on this Saturday at 3.30pm, venue to be confirmed. As well as the Orchard County, familiar foes in Tyrone, Roscommon and Wicklow as well as newcomers, Cavan will vie with Kildare for an All-Ireland Final berth in Croke Park in August.

Attending the launch of the 2026 Championships in Croke Park recently, was Naas player and Kildare goalkeeper, Róisín Roche, who like her Naas teammates was not involved with the Kildare set up in 2025 and so wasn’t involved when the Lilywhites were relegated from the Intermediate Championship last year.

Róisín has been involved in camogie in Naas since she followed her sisters to the club at four years of age. Apart from last year she has also been involved with the Kildare set up from underage level. 

“I would have played pretty much the whole way up, U14 up to minor and we'd a really good minor team there,” she told The Kildare Nationalist at the Croke Park Championship launch. 

“We were hoping to win it all out and then Covid happened. I then went into the senior panel when I was about maybe 19,” she told us.

The goal keeper was involved with Kildare during the Centra League where Kildare, under new manager, Rob O’Neill, operated in Division 3A along with four of their Championship opponents, Armagh, Roscommon, Tyrone and Wicklow, who O’Neill had recently managed. 

“It was definitely a frustrating one,” the Kildare goalkeeper recalled of their League campaign. “We had two good wins against Tyrone and Wicklow but I think we probably never got that 60-minute performance. We showed patches of some really good stuff of what we can do but we just probably couldn't get it all together,” she continued. 

“In saying that we only missed out on the League Final by score difference so it's definitely something we want to build on now for championship. The talent is there, the work rate is there. We're just still waiting for it all to kind of click so hopefully it will come with championship and we'd be quite ambitious for it,” she added. 

In the Leinster Intermediate Championship Kildare came up against a more powerful and experienced Westmeath team and lost out 6-14 to 0-12 but Róisín Roche took positives from that defeat.

 “I think we definitely took positives in terms of we actually did start quite well. I just learned in terms of structure, game plan and that kind of thing. It's always good to see the next level, that's where we want to be,” the Naas player said.

Kildare’s new manager, Rob McCabe, managed the Kildare minor team to All Ireland “B” success in 2023 and some of those players are now coming through to the senior ranks. Roche would have known the new manager from his days with the Naas club. 

.“Yeah, I’ve known from around eight and I have coached his daughter as well,” she told us. 

“He's definitely brought something different into the panel, really trying to create that kind of elite setup, obviously within training but also bringing in things like nutritionists, psychologists, which maybe we haven't had in past years. There's a fresh kind of outlook there on the team and hopefully it is working. We are in a bit of a building process but I think they're definitely bringing something different and hopefully we can just keep pushing on with it,” she continued.

Of the current Kildare panel Róisín Roche had this to say. 

“Definitely I'd say more on the youth side. I’m 24 and one of the oldest of the team but some of them are phenomenal players. It is a step up to seniors, physicality wise, time on the ball and stuff. The more exposure they get it's just going to be better and better. If we can keep some of that experience and mix it with youth I think we'll have a really good spot there,” she believed.

Róisín Roche is looking no further that Saturday’s game against the Orchard County. 

“We'd love to be in Croke Park in August but you're getting ahead of yourself there,” she said, “Maybe we got ahead of ourselves in the League and we wanted to be in the League Final. It's good to be ambitious but we've got to win our games so definitely the focus will be on the Armagh match and take it one game at a time.” 

The Physiotherapist who works in her mother, Geraldine’s practice in Kildare town concluded by saying, “It’s just about getting some consistency and cohesion and getting back to winning matches and build that confidence and try and keep that kind of player group together. Bring up the younger girls and just knit it all together while hopefully winning matches and build some momentum and get back up to Intermediate. I think that is part of the goal at the moment.”