Curry and Coolera ready to do battle
FOR either Curry or Coolera/Strandhill, Intermediate football is just one game away. But, they stand in one another’s way as they prepare for the Junior Ladies final at Markievicz Park on Saturday.
Coolera have enjoyed an impressive Championship campaign having just re-joined the league this year. Their league campaign may be one to forget, but they have gelled together at the so-called business end of the season.
Curry have been consistently strong in both League and Championship this year. And although Coolera may have the upper hand in terms of this year’s meetings between the two sides, Curry have rarely let their guard down all year.
“We’re feeling good. Really looking forward to it now and we’ ll get stuck into them,” Cliodhna Fleming told The Sligo Champion. “Lots of work has been going in, especially in the last few months. They’re a very good team, they gave us a good beating the last time so we know that they’re strong.”
And Aine Stenson says that the Curry Ladies feel ready for the challenge of Coolera Strandhill. “We’re feeling pumped now. We’ve been working a while for this. We’re feeling ready anyway.”
Reaching the Junior final was one of the aims at the beginning of the year. Now that Curry have got that far, they want to go one step further. “We said at the start of the year that this was where we wanted to be. We’re here so, this is the only shot we get,” said James Walsh. And the fact that Coolera have already beaten Curry, means that the South Sligo girls go into this game with a point to prove.
“It gives us added incentive to go out and prove that we have improved since our last meeting, that they’re not that much stronger than us. At the end of the day, it’s the two best teams in the county,” added Walsh.
With the Sligo Ladies reaching the All-Ireland semi-final, club games were halted for a period. The wait is long, but it has just made Curry hungrier for success. “We haven’t played a game in six or seven weeks so you’re waiting around a long time. Once you know you’re in the final it’s a long wait, trying to keep girls motivated and trying to get them to keep coming to training. Training last night, there was 18 or 19 so you can tell there’s an atmosphere and girls are looking forward to it,” said Keith Davey.
Joanne Kennedy is struggling with injury and is likely now to miss the final.
For Coolera/Strandhill it took some time, but they finally have a ladies team in a junior final once again. Ruth Goodwin, a stalwart of ladies GAA has returned to Coolera from St. Mary’s and is now hoping to win silverware. “I think everyone’s very excited about this. It’s been a long time since Coolera were in a county final, it’s about ten years since we’ve had a ladies team. I don’t think anyone can be too confident going into a final, all teams are going to be well prepared for it,” she told The Sligo Champion.
Coolera’s name was last on the Bank of Ireland Cup in 2006, in fact. “It would mean everything to the club. This year being our first year back there is a great buzz, especially with the girls that were at other clubs, coming back. There’s loads of work with the underage and everything. There’s great development on going,” said Pat Kerrigan.
A return for a Coolera ladies Junior team was a while coming, but now that they are back, they have their own on silverware.
“Last year was the first year we had a minor team for a few years. Last year we looked at a minor team, we got a minor team. We looked last year at the possibility of a senior team but we just didn’t have the numbers so we said we’d go with minors first, this year we said we’re going to have a junior team. We got girls who were out at other clubs on special permission to come back and we got players from other clubs to join us on special permission. We targeted a junior final. That’s the first step done,” said Frank O’Sullivan. “It’s been an upward curve and let’s hope it doesn’t drop.”
“It takes a while for a team to gel together. It’s come at peak point where you want to be getting good,” added Ruth.