TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship Final: Down v Limerick (Tomorrow, Croke Park, 11.45pm live on TG4)
DOWN are looking for an immediate return to the intermediate tier but must get past the challenge of Limerick in tomorrow’s All-Ireland Junior final.
This is the first of the triple header bill at Croke Park and should set the tone for the day ahead.
The Mourne County, having been relegated from the intermediate championship last season, have targeted the junior title from the offset this year, but to give themselves that chance, they have had to navigate the required channels to reach this final hurdle and with only the winner earning promotion, there is still plenty to do on the day.
This is Down’s first junior final appearance since 2000 and it was a memorable one with victory over Galway. They were more recently in the All-Ireland intermediate final – well, some nine years ago in 2014 – and they won that day as well against Fermanagh, so they have a good history in these final stages.
The Ulster side, who also clinched the Ulster title earlier in the summer, began the championship campaign among the favourites to contest this final and indeed were marked as outright favourites for the honour this year.
Limerick were also muted as being among the last remaining teams and they finally have got back to this stage for the first time since 2018 having got the better of Fermanagh, at the fourth attempt – they lost to the Ernesiders in 2020, 2021 and 2022 - in the semi-final. Caoimhe McGrath, a half-time substitute that day, made a huge impact with six points, so Down will be wary of her threat.
The sides have already met in the competition, in the final group game of the qualifying stages. Both sides had already qualified for the knockout stages by then with wins over Kilkenny and Sligo and, while the result did not have a bearing on the semi-finalists, it did determine who finished top of the table to then face the second placed team in the other group.
Down came away with the win, a hard-fought but good five points victory – 1-13 to 1-8 – on Limerick’s home turf. Natasha Ferris, the current leader for the Golden Boot award as championship (out of all three grades) top scorer, hit 1-9 that day and as much as McGrath will be on Down’s radar, Ferris, whose tally currently stands at 7-26 (just two points ahead of Clare’s Fidelma Marrinan, who will play in the intermediate final) will certainly be on Limerick’s.
Down had an equally hard fought win over Carlow in the semi-final last month. Played out in extremely difficult conditions in Parnell Park, it took a late goal from substitute Orla Swail to see off the Leinster side’s challenge, 1-9 to 0-8.
That game, though, will stand to the Mourne side and will have given joint managers Peter Lynch and Caoibhe Sloan a good base to work off in the weeks since in preparation for this final against Limerick.
