‘If they can rise to that level they can win on Sunday’
FOR the first time in 9 years, a Sligo ladies football team will grace the field with an All-Ireland title on the line.
Back then, it was Drumcliffe/Rosses Point.
Now, this Sunday, it is the turn of Tourlestrane to hopefully do what has never been done in ladies club football here in Sligo, win an All-Ireland title.
If nothing comes of this Sunday however, this Tourlestrane team will already go into the history books, as the first senior team from that much celebrated south Sligo club to not only make to an All-Ireland Sunday, but to win a Connacht Championship this past October.
Tourlestrane banished all before them in the County Championship, defeating local rivals CT Gaels emphatically with a score line of 5-12 to 1-04 in the Intermediate final, paving their way to Connacht and from there the long road to Carlow where once again they tasted success over hosts Old Leighlin.
Sligo LGFA chairman Keith Gilroy attributes Tourlestrane’s recent rise to dominance to the role that their more experienced players have within the club. He said: “A big reason for their success has been the role the older players have had in the club.
“Young players in Tourlestrane are seeing players such as Katie Walsh, Nikki Brennan and Molly Corcoran coaching the local school, in the community, and can be seen as positive role models in the area for aspiring young footballers.”
Perhaps Tourlestrane’s best performance of the year was not in Kilcoyne Park, but in Ballyhaunis where they defeated Naomh Anna Leitir Moír of Galway in the Connacht decider.
Gilroy said of that match: “If Tourlestrane can rise to that level again, I see no reason why they cannot win on Sunday.”
That 3-point win, their narrowest margin of victory in several months, set them on a collision course for the Leinster and Carlow Champions Old Leighlin, who they overcome by a scoreline of 2-10 to 0-10. Their adversaries on Sun- day are Glanmire, Junior Champions from Cork, the national epicentre of Ladies Gaelic Games.
Should Tourlestrane get over the line on Sunday, it is hard to imagine the impact the win would have on the parish, and the Sligo GAA community as a whole.
All we be decided from 2:30pm in Ballinasloe this Sunday Afternoon, and one can be sure that many will keep a watchful eye for the score come Sunday.
TOURLESTRANE v GLANMIRE
DUGGAN PARK, BALLINASLOE Sunday, December 9th
2:30pm