‘They present the exact challenge you want in a final’
IT has been a long 13 years since Blessington were last in a senior county final. For current player-coach Kim Connors, who has held the responsibility of leading this team alongside Jess Brennan and Roisin Ellis, this is her very first senior decider, having been part of the Blessington team returned to the top tier courtesy of winning the intermediate championship in 2013.
In the years since their Intermediate win and return to the senior championship, Wicklow football has been dominated by Tinahely, who have become one of the great teams to have recently come out of the county.
It is impossible not to acknowledge the history that is at hand when they line out against Tinahely on Saturday evening in Baltinglass in a titanic clash that bookends the most unorthodox of campaigns, but Connors insisted that their sole focus will be entirely on the task at hand.
‘The run in the championship has been anything but normal for everyone. Obviously, we would love to have family, friends, and
club members with us on Saturday, but with a 13-year absence from a Senior final, I guess we will take it.
‘We’ve been a long time waiting on it. Much of the squad played a part in the Intermediate final in 2013 that brought us back up to Senior, so that core group has been working towards this all
that time.
‘We concentrate on the things we can control and that’s how it has been all year for us.’
This may be the first year in which Kim and Jess are taking the reigns of the senior side, but they share ample experience when it comes coaching. Having brought the current under-14 group up
from under-eights, Brennan and Connors are currently overseeing that team, as well as the under-16s, juniors, and – of course, the seniors. That extensive experience counts in their favour and has gone some way towards establishing consistency when it comes to how they approach the game.
‘Myself and Jess have the experience and advantage of coaching alongside each other for years now, so we work very well together. She has been an unbelievable guide for me personally, helping me up the coaching ladder.
‘Roisin has been a big part of this squad for years now and knows it inside out. She had a new baby in the middle of the summer and has helped us out when possible.
‘There are times things wouldn’t even be discussed; you’d just know we are on the same wave length. We like to play and set up the same way and it definitely helps that we have experience at either end of the pitch.
‘(We are) firm believers in getting the simple things right and the rest will follow. It helps too when we’ve such a great group of girls that never doubt or second guess what is being asked of them. They just get on with it.
‘We can’t hide the fact that we are friends with these players before taking on any managerial roles, but I think they respect and trust us enough to know that any decisions are made with the best intentions and for the good of the group.
‘To be fair, I’d say it’s us as coaches that overthink these things more than any of the girls. They’ve been nothing but great all year.’
Standing in their way in their first county final in over a decade is a team that has assembled a formidable dominance over ladies football in the county over the past few years. In 2019, Tinahely made history by winning their fifth consecutive county title and will be heavily fancied to win their sixth this weekend.
The stature of their opponents and the way in which the odds will be stacked against Blessingoton as a result, Connors said that it has laid the groundwork for the very contest for which they have spent years preparing.
‘They present the exact challenge you want in a county final. We are no strangers to each other that is for sure. We can’t ignore the fact they’ve been very successful over the previous seasons but again we will go in focused on ourselves, in the save way we have been all year.’