Brunell basketball captain will out miss on cup final against Killester

SINGLETON’S SUPERVALU BRUNELL captain, Danielle O’Leary, will miss the Women’s Paudie O’Connor National Cup final, against Pyrobel Killester, on Sunday week

O’Leary, the longest-serving player in the Brunell squad, damaged ankle ligaments in her side’s semi-final win over DCU Mercy and will be sidelined for up to six weeks. The northside team went into that game as raging underdogs, but produced champagne basketball that stunned the Dublin outfit into submission.

On a weekend of shocks (fellow Cork side Ambassador UCC Glanmire lost to Killester and Neptune lost to Templeogue in the men’s semi-final), the Brunell win was greeted with elation by coach, Tim O’Halloran.

“First of all, it’s sad for Danielle to be missing a cup final, as she has played with the club over the last 20-plus years and, hopefully, the rest of the squad will rise to the occasion,” said O’Halloran.

Few pundits would have predicted that Brunell would overcome the league leaders, but O’Halloran felt they had a chance of lifting the cup, if they produced the brand of basketball they played in the semi-final, which has been missing all season.

“When we played DCU Mercy, in the Super League, at their gym, they defeated us by 13 points and I had a feeling, if we adjusted one or two things, that we wouldn’t be far off posing them problems in the cup and, thankfully, the players stood up to be counted,” added O’Halloran.

The final will be televised live on TG4, on Sunday, January 26 at 5.30pm, when a huge Brunell support will converge on the capital, in the hope of witnessing their team win this championship for the first time in the club’s history.