Cork Ladies Football: Éire Óg will be hoping to go one better this year as Aghada defend crown
Aghada players, led by captain Róisín Phelan, celebrate after winning last year's championship. They will be among the favourites to lift the cup this season. Picture: Chani Anderson
The Cork Credit Unions Senior Ladies Football Club Championship gets underway this weekend.
Defending champions, Aghada, are not in action this week so they will get the opportunity to size up their opponents before they get their title defence underway in a week’s time against St Val's.
This championship has thrown up many great games over the last few years and no doubt this year there will be a few surprises along the way as well.
In most people’s eyes Éire Óg will be expected to be Aghada’s biggest challengers again this season, but there are no bad sides involved and picking a winner is not that easy.
There are some great games in the opening round, but the clash of Clonakilty and O’Donovan Rossa is one that catches the eye.
They met last week in a West Cork final and the Skibb side emerged as winners. But they will know that won’t count for anything on Sunday, especially as Clon have home advantage.
They will be backboned by the likes Martina O’Brien, Aisling Hutchings, Sinéad O’Donovan and Aisling Moloney and will be determined to make up for last weekend’s loss to the Skibb outfit.
O’Donovan Ross are not short of talent themselves and their rise through the divisions over the last few seasons has been remarkable.
They have tasted Cork, Munster and All-Ireland glory as they moved from junior, through intermediate, and up to senior.
They are a team that will fear no-one and one that plenty will fear. They are captained by Cork senior star Laura O’Mahony and along with her the likes of Eabha O’Donovan, Sarah Hurley and Fionnuala O’Driscoll are quality players.
They also have Cork All-Ireland winning minor captain, Allie Tobin, to look to and on paper they are up there with the best of them at this level.
Éire Óg’s clash will Glanmire takes place at Ovens and the home side will be hoping to get off to a winning start.
For Éire Óg it has been a tough few years as they have lost the last four county finals in a row. It’s never easy to lose a final but last year’s loss was probably the hardest to take, losing on free kicks to Aghada.
Normally they have the likes of Emma and Laura Cleary, Meabh and Orlaith Cahalane, Sadhbh McGoldrick and Orlaith Cremin to call on.
Whether the Cahalane sisters are available this weekend remains to be seen, but they will be expected to play.
McGoldrick recently joined Cork City Women’s soccer team so may not feature for them this season.
Glanmire are never easy to beat and they will be hoping their Cork star, Abbie O’Mahony, will continue her inter-county form in the club championship.
Orlaith Roche was also involved in the Cork set-up this year and is another player who can cause any defence problems.
They certainly won’t fear the Ovens side but Glanmire know they will go in as slight underdogs in this one.
Kinsale are at home to Mourneabbey, with the latter one of the top sides in ladies football now for some time. They had a slight dip last year, but they will be out to prove that’s all it was.
Castlehaven are at home to St Val’s, two teams that are never found wanting in a championship battle. Difficult to see who will come out on top but home advantage just might swing it the Haven’s way.
Castlehaven v St Vals; Clonakilty v O’Donovan Rossa; Éire Óg v Glanmire; Kinsale v Mourneabbey, 1pm.
Abhainn Dalla v Naomh Aban; Midleton v Rosscarbery; Valley Rovers v Fermoy.
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