Drumcliffe-Rosses Point are hoping
Connacht LGFA Junior Club Championship Final Drumcliffe-Rosses Point v Salthill-Knocknacarra (Galway)
Sunday, November 6: Ballyhaunis GAA Club pitch (1pm)
THERE are various ways of looking at it. Essentially, it is about seizing the day. Not every finalist can achieve this – to be in the moment, forget about the games already played or the finals that the future might never bring. The Ladies Footballers of Drumcliffe-Rosses Point are in a good place right now – winners of last month’s Sligo LGFA Connacht Gold Junior ‘A’ Championship final by 15 points, they won their provincial semi-final on Saturday last by 19 points.
Now they want – and have to – bring this momentum into Sunday’s Connacht LGFA Junior Club Championship decider against Galway’s Salthill-Knocknacarra, a contest that will take place at Ballyhaunis GAA Club’s pitch (1pm start).
Drumcliffe-Rosses Point were last Connacht finalists in 2009 – that year they won the provincial title and contested the All-Ireland final.
For this campaign, they matched October’s powerful county final defeat of Shamrock Gaels, with Maeve Casserly and Keela Scanlon each scoring 1-2, with an equally ruthless display against St Croan’s (Roscommon) at Enfield.
Here it was Rianne Smith, who scored 1-3, Maeve Casserly (0-4) and Sinead Regan (1-0) that notched big scores against overwhelmed opponents. Drumcliffe-Rosses Point were nine points clear at half-time, 0-12 to 0-3.
Can Drumcliffe-Rosses Point be similarly merciless against SalthillKnocknacarra? Galway teams are not flawless at this level when facing
Roisin Grennan, Avril Clancy, Aimee Oates, Jayne McCormack, Isabella Henry, Michelle McNamara (c), Lorraine Oates, Denise Regan, Caoimhe Connor, Rianne Smith, Sinead Regan, Oda Carty, Maeve Casserly, Keela Scanlon, Katie Maguire, Rachel Quigley, Aoife McLaughlin, Eimear Colreavy, Alannah Gallagher, Ruth Flanagan, Aisling Ewing, Grace Casserly, Lisa Morrow, Elaine Flanagan, Jasmine Dunleavy, Orlaith Furey, Megan Brady, Molly Brady, Riona Connor, Cathy Clarke
Management: Tommy Oates (manager), Barry O’Sullivan, Tony Quigley, Rory Connor, Catriona Casserly, Emma Flanagan, Margaret Regan
we should push on and try to give Connacht a proper go,” the centre-back stated.
While the competition draw was kind in that it gave Drumcliffe-Rosses Point a semi-final, this game still had to be won.
“We want to keep improving in every game, look at the things we can tweak – and we’ve got a really good group of players. The younger players have brought great energy and talent to the set up.
“We are enjoying the season – we could have taken the view that
anything after winning the county title would be a bonus but after last weekend’s result [against St Croan’s] we want to keep going.”
While Drumcliffe-Rosses Point proved their worth against St Croan’s, it was still a step into the unknown for the bulk of the squad according to McNamara. “For a game like this it isn’t like club stuff, you wouldn’t know the players the you are up against and you wouldn’t know the referee. So we just focused on ourselves and how we try to usually play.
“It turned out to be a comprehensive
in recent weeks we hadn’t that much time to be thinking about playing at Tallaght [against Shelbourne].”
She continued: “Thankfully we have momentum going into this game [they won their last five games] and hopefully it will go well for us and we can take the cup back to Athlone. “Being involved in the title race over the last few weeks gave us momentum and an appetite – that is what you want going into a cup final.
“We will be nervous – we haven’t prior experience of playing in a game like this – but we’ve played high-pressure games this season and we’ve already beaten Shelbourne.
“We also showed consistency this season and it helped that most of the players re-signed from last year. We do have belief that, on our day, that we can beat them. Shelbourne are champions for a reason, we know we are underdogs and we’ll respect them – but we won’t fear them.” Athlone, who are captained by Laurie Ryan, boast one of this season’s leading scorers, striker Emily Corbet.
Should Athlone win, Devaney won’t be the first Sligo woman to win an FAI Women’s Cup – that honour goes to current Rovers senior women’s player Emma Hansberry, who was twice a winner with Wexford Youths (2015 and 2018). Hansberry was also a runner-up with Castlebar Celtic in 2013 playing at the Aviva Stadium on the same day as Rovers won the FAI Men’s Cup.
Molloy has famous GAA connections – her dad Neil and his twin brother, Eamonn, both starred for Eastern Harps and Sligo.
Alongside her Athlone commitments, Molloy has maintained her involvement in Ladies Football with both Eastern Harps and Sligo. She made a special mention of her soccer upbringing at Gurteen Celtic.
“It would be massive if we win on Sunday – especially for myself and Muireann [Devaney]. Gurteen Celtic have played a huge part in my development, I played with them when I was younger – they deserve credit for that,” she added.
Family members, friends and the Gurteen community will be rooting for Molloy on Sunday and there’ll be a group shouting from the terraces for her and Athlone this coming Sunday. This Sunday’s EVOKE.ie FAI Women’s Cup final will be broadcast live on RTÉ2.
LOCAL INTEREST: Manorhamilton’s Muireann Devaney is part of the Athlone Town team that has reached this season’s EVOKE.ie FAI Women’s Cup final.