Stokes expecting a tough clash

IN Blessington on that magical county final day when Ciara Stokes lifted the cup after the victory over a gallant St Pat’s the Tinahely captain couldn’t sing the praises of her colleagues enough, mentioning the strong bond between them that helps them get over the line in big games.

Since that county final Tinahely have went to war on two occasions and are now 60 minutes away from their first ever Leinster title. Ciara Stokes says if anything the team have become closer since the county final thanks to the battles and the work being done with Newtown’s Paul O’Riordan.

‘We’ve become a lot closer (since the county final in Blessington). We’ve been working on a lot of stuff with Paul O’Riordan (Newtown). It’s bringing us all together so much more. We’ve been doing activities about writing about each other and things like that and it’s bringing everyone together as a group. And I suppose the women are doing food after training on Wednesdays so we’re spending a lot more time together.

‘He’s our sports psychologist. I suppose he’s working on our mental strength so that if anything happens, we don’t get fussed about it or start worrying about it. It’s really good. It’s really worked for us this year so far,’ said Ciara.

That work with Paul O’Riordan paid off in the narrow one-point win over Louth side Geraldines and the extra-time victory over Clanna Gael of Dublin and the Tinahely captain says that there is never a question over this team giving their all on the day.

‘I knew that the girls were going to give it their all. I never have to question; I always have belief. Paul goes through scenarios with us, so whenever, at half-time or in extra-time, he said ‘we’ve talked about this’, and it’s nothing that fazes us now, it’s something that comes and has to be done and we have to dig it out.

‘We knew coming into it (the match against Clanna Gael in Tinahely) that it was never going to be an easy match. It’s a Leinster semi-final. So, when they came down, we said we had to work as hard as we can and not have any regrets about the day. We can’t leave anything behind us because we’ve been working so hard for the last couple of years.

‘When we arrived everyone was relaxed, we were in our home surroundings, the crowd, it just all went our way. The support we had was unreal, at the end it was just amazing, and nobody could really believe that it had actually happened. There were people crying and everything. It was so unreal; I don’t know how to describe it,’ she said.

And now it’s Kinnegad this Sunday evening at 5pm. A meeting with Offaly’s Naomh Ciarán in the Leinster final. A town and a community and hopefully a county fullly behind them on their mission to bring provincial glory home to the Garden County.

‘We’re going to be prepared for anything that comes our way. We’re not going to let anything faze us. We know how to deal with all the situations we’ve been put in. We know it’s going to be a tough battle. It’s obviously not going to be easy. But we’re going out there and we’re going to leave absolutely nothing on the pitch. We can’t afford or nor do we want to leave anything on that pitch. We’ve been working for this for nine years. We’re not going to let anything stand in our way.