Clonakilty Sacred Heart footballers chasing All-Ireland schools success
The Sacred Heart SC Clonakilty panel that has qualified for the All-Ireland LGFA PPS Senior C championship final on Friday afternoon.
CLONAKILTY’S Sacred Heart Secondary School are one step from Lidl All-Ireland PPS Senior championship glory.
The west Cork school has been in scintillating form en-route to Friday’s All-Ireland PSS senior C final meeting with Our Lady’s Bower secondary school from Athlone.
A panel made up primarily of Clonakilty players also includes Kilmeen, Ibane Gales, and Rosscarbery representatives. Cork dual minor Millie Condon has been playing at a consistently high level throughout the campaign as has Cork City Women’s FC emerging talent Orlaith Deasy.
Yet it is the quality and depth of co-managers Brian Daly and Ciarán Mulcahy’s panel that has delivered Munster PPS success and has Sacred Heart one step from All-Ireland glory.
The Clonakilty school captured the 2022 Munster PPS senior C title following a 5-6 to
1-6 victory over Coláiste Muire Ennis earlier this March.
Rathkeale’s all-weather pitch provided the perfect surface for a free-flowing encounter in which the eventual winners demonstrated their ability to score from multiple areas of the pitch.
Midfield duo Katie O’Driscoll and Ciardha McCarthy netted a goal apiece in a provincial decider forwards Deasy and Siofra Patwell each contributed 1-3. Half-forward Aisling Moloney also found the net for a Sacred Heart team that deservedly brought the Munster trophy to West Cork.
“Playing on a 4G surface didn’t affect us,” Sacred Heart SS co-manager Brian Daly stated.
"Everyone knew it was going to be difficult against Coláiste Muire. They got 12 or 13 behind the ball at most stages so you really had to work hard for our scores. Luckily, we got two goals inside the opening 10 minutes. Our defending and tackling was superb, stopping them from getting any shots on our goal until pretty much the last kick of the first half.”
Victory over Coláiste Muire set up an All-Ireland semi-final clash against Coláiste Iognaid from Galway. Once again, the Clonakilty school underlined their quality by claiming a hard-fought 3-15 to 5-03 victory at the UL.
The winners’ goalkeeper, Katie Hearne, full-back line of Mary Murphy, Alannah O’Brien, and Ruth Shanley plus half-back trio Condon, Kate O’Donovan, and Maeve Kingston were in superb form throughout.
Deasy top-scored with a marvellous 1-8. On the same afternoon Moloney (1-2), Condon (1-0), Patwell (0-3), O’Driscoll and Roisín Ní Bhuachalla (0-1 each) completed Sacred Heart’s total.
“We managed to open them up a couple of times but we were also thankful to our goalkeeper Katie Hearne who brought off a string of superb saves.
“Katie could do nothing about their first goal and the second was a dubious penalty. It is a fantastic result as Coláiste Iognaid had not lost a competitive PPS game in four years. They got to an All-Ireland junior final that wasn’t played over two years ago before Covid kicked in.”
Sacred Heart face Our Lady’s Bower Secondary School, Athlone, in Friday’s All-Ireland PPS Senior C decider. This will be the West Cork school’s toughest challenge to date but one they are relishing.
“The weeks leading up to the All-Ireland final are going to be vital but we will not change our approach. One of the biggest takeaways from our All-Ireland semi-final victory our fitness levels, something our opposition commented on. They stayed with us and outplayed us in the latter part of the first half. We kept going and finished the stronger in the second half.
“In the lead-up to the All-Ireland final, it is going to be the same approach for Sacred Heart. We will work on the basics in training, come up with a plan and go from there.”
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