The first two AIB Gaelic Games All Ireland Club Final games were determined over the weekend, first in Ladies Football and then in Camogie.
There was also drama, history made and drama a-plenty in the Provincial Finals across Gaelic Football and Hurling.
Kilmacud Crokes manager Paddy O’Donoghue said it is a huge boost to the club to reach their first AIB All-Ireland Ladies Senior Club final when they will take on reigning champions Kilkerrin-Clonberne in the decider at Croke Park.
Kilmacud Crokes booked their place in the final when Niamh Cotter scored 2-4 on their way to a 5-11 to 1-5 home win over Castleisland Desmonds.
“It’s great to be at this level of football,” said O’Donoghue. “The women have been huge in the club the last couple of years. We’ve over a thousand players now. I think we’re second biggest to the men’s football and obviously the last couple of years we’ve got a bit of success.
You can’t beat going to Croke Park in an All-Ireland final, that will have the whole club buzzing for the next couple of weeks. We’re thrilled, absolutely thrilled.”
He was impressed with the way they dealt with the challenge of the Kerry champions but feels they have work to do.
“I think the scoreline flattered us a bit in the end,” he added. “The first half was very tight. We probably missed a few chances, they missed definitely a very good goal chance up at the top. We just said at half-time just for the girls, have a bit more belief and go at them a bit more aggressively in the second half. I think once we got the penalty then, we got the breathing space and we relaxed after that. We played some great football in the second half. Very happy with that.”
Kilkerrin-Clonberne, chasing a fourth title in a row, saw off Armagh’s Clann Eireann by 2-11 to 1-9 with first half goals from Aisling Madden and Ailish Morrissey in Lurgan sending them on their way back to the decider.
“We got a fair test,” said Kilkerrin-Clonberne manager Willie Ward. “Clann Eireann stuck at it all the time. We got two golden goals in the first half which were huge for us in the context of going in at half-time. Even though they came at us hard in the second half, we had enough built up. There was always the chance they’d get a goal and they did. But we had enough built up that we could take the goal. We’re really happy. Any time you travel away in an All-Ireland semi-final and come back with a win, you’re doing well because semi-finals are tough to win always.”
But he knows they are going to face a huge task against Kilmacud Crokes in the final on Saturday, December 14, at Croke Park (Live on TG4).
“They’ve improved and they’ve got a few players back, so they’ll be better than last year,” added Ward. “We’re going to have to find another level ourselves from today. But we’re there, it’s Croke Park and it’s a different day.”
Sarsfields will look to win their fourth AIB All-Ireland senior club title in what will be their eighth final in nine years on Sunday week, against Clare’s Truagh-Clonlara in Croke Park, and manager Michael McGrath hailed the 1-16 to 3-9 win over Loughgiel Shamrocks yesterday as a victory that was every bit as impressive as anything they’ve done throughout this incredible run of success.
“One of the greatest games of all time,” was how he described the contest at Kingspan Breffni, where first quarter goals from Caitrín Dobbin, Róisín McCormick and Lucia McNaughton plunged the Galway side into a crisis.
“Three sucker punches in the first 15 minutes, I don’t think there’s a team in Ireland that would come back from it” McGrath claimed.
“We were playing against the breeze in the second half and were four points down at half-time. We kept coming and kept coming, without getting any goal, they kept taking the points. They were so patient and focussed, they’re amazing girls.”
Caoimhe Kelly’s superb point from the left wing in the 60th minute gave Sarsfields their first lead of the game, with Player of the Match Siobhán McGrath and McCormick trading frees in injury time.
Collecting her award, McGrath – daughter of the manager – said there was no panic in the group when they turned around with a 3-4 to 1-6 deficit.
“In fairness, there was no banging hurls in the dressing room” said the full forward.
“That’s five semi-finals now that we’ve won by a point, these girls don’t quit. We weren’t too disappointed because we played well in the last ten minutes of the first half, it was just the first 20 where we were asleep. And we were only four down, which is nothing in camogie.”
In contrast to the perennial contenders from east Galway, Clonlara-Truagh of Clare continue to break new ground, and they will be the first team from the Banner County to compete for the Bill and Agnes Carroll Cup on Sunday week.
Áine O’Loughlin, Aoibhinn Marren and Becky Foley struck the last three points of the game to seal an 0-11 to 0-9 win over St. Vincent’s of Dublin at Walsh Park.
“We talk about losing county finals in Clare, it wasn’t long ago that we were at intermediate level in our own club. We also lost three or four semi-finals, but once we got over that barrier, there was no stopping this team,” said former Clare coach Ryan Morris, who is now in his fourth year at the helm of the side from his home parish.
“When Sarsfields (Cork) beat us last year and went on to win Munster, it gave us great belief inside our group that we could go on and do something similar.”
This game was level five times over the course of the hour. Dublin stars Aisling Maher and Anna Sullivan got some key scores before half-time to help St Vincent’s lead by 0-7 to 0-4 at the break, albeit after playing with the aid of the breeze, and the advantage shifted back towards the South Clare side when two points each for O’Loughlin and Eimear Kelly nudged them into the lead.
A stunning save from Dara Cooke to deny Foley left the Dubliners in the game and they led with just over five minutes to play, Sullivan taking the lead score, before Truagh-Clonlara found their big finish.
“It’s an absolute dream, it’s not often a small club gets the chance to have days like these,” said Morris. “To get the opportunity to play in Croke Park, and the way they performed today, they just left everything out there. They just don’t know when to stop.
“Myself and my wife are supposed to go on our honeymoon on the weekend of the All-Ireland final, that’s not happening now anyway! New York will always be there, All-Ireland finals don’t come along too often!”
In the Men’s games there was a Leinster Double Header at Croke Park on Saturday.
No Dublin team had ever won both the Football and the Hurling titles, a remarkable fact that was blown away not once but twice at the weekend.
The first to do it, and enter the history books was Cuala with an injury time from from Luke Keating to bring home the football title, followed shortly after by Na Fianna going one better than last year in beating off a comeback from Offaly champions Kilcormac Killoughey to make it a Dublin double.
Both clubs will have celebrated long into the night and will be looking forward to New Year battles against Coolera Strandhill, one point winners in extra time over Padraig Pearses of Roscommon in the Connacht Final, and Loughrea who won the Connacht Title by default having won their County title last month.
On the other side of the draw it will be Ulster Champions Slaughtneil against Cork’s Sarsfields who turned around a seventeen point defeat to Ballygunner in last year’s Munster Championship into a three point win yesterday at Semple Stadium.
The other football semi-final to be played on the first weekend in January will pitch the winners of Munster and Ulster both to be determined next weekend.
Picture above we have Michelle Davoren of Wilson Hartnell and Kilmacud Crokes, winners from Clonlara and then Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business with Cuala Manager Austin O’Malley who was also one of our speakers at the Sport for Business Women in Sport Conference last week.
The Sport for Business Membership comprises nearly 300 organisations, including all the leading sports and sponsors, as well as commercial and state agencies.
