St. Mary’s hope last year’s hurt can drive them on
Shane Breheny’s St. Mary’s Ladies will be hoping it’s a case of ‘ third time lucky’ as they meet Drumcliffe/Rosses Point in the Intermediate final.
Breheny’s charges are in their third final in as many years, and are hoping that two years of hurt can motivate them.
“It’s the third time in a row they’ve been in a final. I suppose this year it’s a different team in a way. The first game in the Championship there we played with only four players who had played in the county final so it’s a transitional period in a way. We’re probably ahead of schedule and we’re delighted to be here,” Breheny told The Sligo Champion.
Breheny is under no illusions though, as understands the threat that Drumcliffe pose.
“They’re a very good team. In the last two years, I knew if you were going to win the Championship they would be a team you’d have to beat. They’re a strong team, similar to ourselves, probably a mix of experience. They have three ladies on the county team but they also have a lot of young minor players and so on.”
While Breheny concedes that their season was made a bit difficult having lost players, he still encourages them to aim for county football, even if it has an impact on their clubs.
“This year, Coolera set up a team and typically we would have had two or three players from Coolera and strong players. When you lose them it can hurt the panel but in similar ways I would always encourage them and you would tell them to try and get on the county panel.
“Karen (Maloney) has been there for many years, Sarah McMoreland in her first year at a county panel. I remember in my first training session Sarah telling me that she was thinking of giving up football so it’s great to see that for her. Emma Hansberry there again. You have to push on with the panel you have.”
Karen Maloney says last year’s pain can help drive them on. “It would be great if we could win. It’s the third year now and I suppose we’re sick of losing. It would be great for us to go that bit further. It does drive us on.”
And the progress made throughout the year, despite a difficult League campaign in Division 1, has pleased Breheny.
“We’ve picked it up since the Championship started and we’ve improved with every game I think. We’ ll have to improve a lot more for the final.
“I think every team has the Championship meeting at the start of the year. I would look at St. Mary’s as trying to have a strong adult team. We have a lot of underage teams coming through that are trying to achieve success.”
Drumcliffe/Rosses Point will admit that they go into this game as underdogs. But that tag will not play on their minds.
“St. Mary’s have been there for the last two years, they’ve been in the finals those years and they were unlucky last year to be beaten by a very strong Eoghan Rua team. I’m sure that they feel as their third year that they are favourites,” Mick Healy told The Sligo Champion.
Their youthful panel has enjoyed an impressive year, and they will be hoping to go one step further.
“We have a very young panel, the average age is just under 18. We have 23 teenagers, we have four girls over 20 so it puts it in perspective.”
Rachel Monaghan says Drumcliffe are well aware of the strength of St. Mary’s: “They’re a really strong team and we’re really going to have to work hard on the day.”
Jayne McCormack added: “A lot of work has gone in. We’ve put so much effort in to it and there’s so much commitment.
At one stage this year, Mick Healy did not think he would even have a Ladies Intermediate team. But, the attitude of his players has impressed him: “The girls are really focused on this. The turnout last Sunday at Oxfield, there was 22 girls there on a wet, miserable morning.
“On the 29 th January we had a meeting in Oxfield and I asked everybody to come along. We had lost four of our more experienced players from last year, between girls going abroad, retiring due to work commitments and so on. It set the tone for the year. We talked about would we have a team, the girls debated are we going to look to go down to junior. What got the year going was the girls saying that they were going to stick with Intermediate and they were going to do it. The year has improved as we have gone on,” added Mick.
Rachel says it’s been a huge year for the club, but a win would make it all the more special: “We got to the league semi-finals and we lost to Tourletrane in the end but we were happy with how we performed. The Championship then we lost one game in our round-robin and then we came back and beat Tourlestrane, all the girls just stepped up to the mark that day.
“We believed in ourselves that day and we came out with that result. It would mean everything to win. We haven’t been in an Intermediate final in years so six years on, it would be brilliant to win.”