The Captains for the Ladies Football All Ireland’s gathered in Croke Park yesterday with Sarah Tierney of Mayo and Sinead Aherne of Dublin hoping to deliver a game that will match the excitement of the two same counties who met in last Sunday’s Men’s final.
There are lots of connections between the two Dublin teams with Niamh McEvoy, Fiona Hudson and Aoife Kane the respective girlfriends of Dean Rock, Paul Flynn and Con O’Callaghan, all of whom we be hoping for a double celebration come Sunday evening.
Lauren Magee and Leah Caffrey’s fathers both played for Dublin as well with Paul Caffrey winning his All Ireland back in 1983.
Tyrone legend Peter Canavan’s daughter Áine and niece Maria are both members of the Tyrone team that will play Tipperary in the Intermediate Final, also at Croke Park on Sunday but he has been angered by the Tyrone County Board fixing a Senior Men’s Championship clash between his club Errigal Ciarán and Gemma Begley’s club Carrickmore for the same day.
It means that club members will have to choose between the two unless a solution is found in the coming days.
Speaking to the Irish Independent Canavan said that “There would be hundreds from Errigal and Carrickmore going down to that game to support the ladies. Now we have a fixture at 6 o’clock in Pomeroy.”
“In the case of the Quinn family, you have a brother and a sister in Shannon and Eoin Quinn (who is a playing member of the Errigal Ciarán senior team). Eoin will not be able to see his sister playing in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park.”
It is hoped that a new record crowd of over 35,000 will attend Croke Park on Sunday with Dublin bidding for their second ever title at this level after winning their first in 2010 and Mayo going for a fifth after a gap back to 2003 since their last.
The Finals have been played at Croke Park since 1986 and have set a new attendance record in each of the last four years with 34,445 coming through the turnstiles last year.
Dublin have lost the last three All Ireland’s to Cork by one point, two points, and one point, echoing Mayo’s setbacks against Dublin on the Men’s side.
Dublin Captain Sinead Aherne though will be hoping to put that record to rest on Sunday in what promises to be a great final.
TG4 will be televising all three Finals on Sunday Live from the stadium and will also be hosting a special night of conversation as part of a Live Facebook stream from the Croke Park Hotel on Satuday night, in partnership with Sport for Business.
Host Gráinne McElwain will be chatting with former All Ireland Winners Lyndsey Peat and Valerie Mulcahy as well as boxer Kellie Harrington and jockey Rachael Blackmore with the show going out live through the TG4 Facebook page between 8pm and 9pm. Read more about the event here.
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Image Credits Inpho Ryan Byrne
