Interesting pairing coming together in Junior decider

WICKLOW Ladies Junior championship final, which takes place this Saturday in the county grounds in Aughrim at 2pm, throws up an interesting pairing with both sides hailing from east Wicklow and both with exciting youthful sides.

An Tochar have a proud tradition in Wicklow ladies footballing circles and beyond having been the queens of Senior champions, particularly during the 1990s when the club won eight Senior titles while also contesting three Leinster finals while this era also saw the selection of Wicklow’s only All Star in Nicky Dunne.

It is interesting to see that Nicky is indeed still involved with the club being a selector on this year’s team.

However, An Tochar struggled subsequently and have only recently been involved competitively at adult level. They reached the Junior decider in 2016 and will hope that today will see them victorious.

In a similar way, Éire Óg were a strong senior side as recently as 2012 when they contested for the senior title with Tinahely in Arklow.

However, they subsequently struggled and indeed there was no team in Greystones for the following four years. Both sides have really been strengthening their younger structure with a lot of work going into their juvenile teams and this emphasis on the younger players is beginning to bear fruit.

Thus it is no coincidence that these two teams will contest the Junior decider. This Sunday will see one of these two attractive sides advance to the Intermediate grade and certainly is a difficult on to call.

There is no doubt that there will be scores a plenty in this match as both sets of forwards are free scoring. Both sides have their talismanic leaders – on the Greystones side there’s the mercurial Meadhbh Deeney – who was the player of the match in the All Ireland Junior final replay in 2011 - while on the An Tochar side there’s the precocious talent of county forward Amy Murphy who is capable of shooting the lights out with her sheer pace and scoring abilities.

Neither team however rely solely on these two fine Wicklow county players. They both can boast of having some of the best up and coming players at juvenile level within their ranks.

An Tochar can boast a young brigade with the likes of Jess Scott, Katie Coleman, Izzy Ryle, Sarah O’Toole and Becky Molloy showing great championship form while also having the experienced players like Sarah Kavanagh, Marcella Price and Jess O’Gorman to help them and having had recent losses in championship finals they will certainly not be wanting for effort.

On the other side, Éire Óg will look to the experience of Elaina Fusciardi to assist Deeney and their younger players like Rachel Purcell, Megan Healy, Eva Stone, Aoife McTague, Ellie O’Neill, Katie Lawless and Megan Healy will certainly be to the fore in providing further assistance.

In what is likely to be a shootout due to the strength of both forward divisions the expectation is for a high scoring, free flowing match with victory truly in the balance throughout.

A tentative vote is given to An Tochar due to their having relatively more experience at this level but victory is not a certainty and we look forward to throw in at 2pm.