Pats keen to put last year’s final defeat in the past
ST. Pats ladies say they are hungrier for this year’s Junior Championship following their final defeat in 2015.
The club has only been on the go for two years, and the same applies to their opponents Shamrock Gaels.
Shaunagh Brady says St. Pats are a different animal this year.
“We’re really looking forward to it this year after last year’s loss we’re definitely more hungry. We’re just a different team this year because we have that extra year behind us,” she said.
Manager Martin Giblin says a number of departures from last year’s panel meant there had to be changes this year, but he’s been pleased with how his players reacted.
“From the panel we had last year we’ve lost 11 or 12 players. Some of them were on the starting team last year. That was a bit of a blow to us. We’ve picked up a lot of younger players who have come up through the ranks. We might have got a little bit stronger in that respect. We might be the underdogs, Shamrock Gaels have already beaten us this year once so we know what it’s like to meet them.
“Sometimes you’re better off knowing nothing about the opposition. We played Curry earlier in the year and they gave us a clipping. Then later we went up and played Curry in their own back yard and we beat them in probably the hardest game we had all year but it’s one that will stand to us.
“A final is a final but you don’t want to make too much of it because some players react very well to a final and others don’t so you try and play it down as much as you can. It’s a must win game.”
Shaunagh says it’s a level playing field heading into the final as both sides have defeated one another this year.
“What I like to focus on, coming into a final, is Martin saying the lead up to it, a few girls who hadn’t played football in the last few years were coming back when we got our ladies team set up in the parish. A big final to them is a big deal. I want to build on that. We all had that day last year. We’ve beaten Shamrock Gaels and they’ve beaten us.”
With the club only two years old, Giblin says the support they have received has been massive.
“This team is only set up two years. We’re very fortunate that in the first year we had set up that we got to the final. There’s great support out there, most of the games are at 10 in the morning, we’ve been getting great support.
“The promotion of it, last year we wouldn’t have known this side of it. We wouldn’t have known that Keith ( Gilroy) and Kathleen ( Kane) had put so much effort into it. It’s great to see it wasn’t a once off. I personally prefer ladies football. It’s more about the game. Fellas football, sometimes they can lose what the game itself is about. From a promotional point of view Sligo is doing all it can. .
But Giblin feels the season has been long, and the difficulty in securing challenge matches has made it tough to keep players motivated.
“In the Junior Championship, there aren’t too many teams. It’s very dragged out. It’s hard to keep girls motivated. We tried to get a few challenge matches but we got none.”
While Shamrock Gaels manager Gus Chapman quips that he has a “few tricks up his sleeve”, he is serious about his hopes of winning the Junior Championship.
Reaching the final, he says, was the aim for this year. Now that they have that box ticked, they’re hoping for more.
“Yeah that was our aim from the very start. Last year we were very disappointed we didn’t get to the final. Last year when we saw on the day, St. Pats and Calry in it it really spurred me on to work to get to the final, and hopefully win it. The league was a bonus too.”
Aisling Boyd says Gaels are under no illusions - they’re aware of the difficulty of the task at hand.
“We’re looking forward to playing Pats. We know they’re a good team, they were in the final last year. They’d be a tough side as well,” she said.
With a youthful side at his hands, Chapman says it would be nice for the more senior players to win silverware.
We’ve a very young team. We have a few Under 16s in the panel so if you can keep the girls together it should be very good in a few years, it’s just about building. There’s a few of the more senior girls, Id be delighted for them. When we won the league final it was the first cup in 21 years for the club so for the sake of the older girls it would be really nice to win it.
“For the younger girls it would keep them all together for another while,” he said.