Éire Óg v Aghada: History awaits in Cork ladies football final
Laura Cleary, Éire Óg, kicks a point against Glanmire. Picture: Larry Cummins
No matter who wins on Sunday there will be a new name on the Cork ladies football championship Senior A cup.
The final, throw-in at 4pm at MTU, sees Éire Óg take on Aghada, as for the first time in 11 years Mourneabbey won’t be in the decider.
The Ovens side have been in the final over the last few years and got close to Mourneabbey on occasions but were never able to get the better of them.
Manager Joe Carroll and his side won’t be taking Aghada for granted and though it was early in the championship campaign he will be well aware of their loss to them in the group stages.
That day the East Cork side came out on top by a single point, 0-12 to 2-5, but had they taken a few of their goal chances it would have been a bigger margin.
They didn’t have too much time to celebrate before they turned their attention to this Sunday’s game. Both will be key players for Éire Óg who have a talented side and will be slight favourites in the eyes of some.
Sadbh McGoldrick, Emma and Laura Cleary, Meabh Kelleher, Jen O’Gorman and Shauna Cronin are just some of the other players they can call on.
Similarly, Aghada have plenty of top-class talent in their side and when you need players with experience and quality to stand up and be counted they don’t come much better than Roisin Phelan, Emma Farmer, Sarah Leahy and Hannah Looney.
Defensively, along with Phelan, they will look to the likes of Sally McAllister, Clare Walsh and Ali Smith. Up front Farmer will be well supported by Brianna and Kaitlyn Smith, and Ava Coughlan.
It should be a highly entertaining encounter, but one has to question the timing of the final. For the last number of years, these finals were normally played on Saturday. This year this game is being played at exactly the same time as the Cork Premier Senior final, between Sarsfields and Imokilly, an East Cork derby.
While you can argue that ladies football need to stand on their own it seems crazy to play the game opposite the hurling decider and it is likely to hit the attendance on the day. However there is nothing the two sides can do about that now, but just get on with it.
It’s one-all in games played so far this season between these two, with Kinsale winning the West Cork Division One league final and Clon coming out on top in their group game in the championship.
Clon will be slight favourites and Kinsale will be hit by the loss of Sadhbh O’Leary who is now in Australia.
In a triple header, the Junior C final between Ballinora and Mallow will get proceedings underway at 12 noon.
On Saturday, Donehys will take on Midleton in the Junior A final at Cloughduv at 4pm, with the former hoping to make up for their loss in this final last year.
Dohenys v Midleton, Cloughduv, 4pm.
Éire Óg v Aghada, MTU, 4pm.
Clonakilty v Kinsale, MTU, 2pm.
Ballinora v Mallow, MTU, 12pm.
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