Sunday Sep 24 2017
TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Championship Final: Tipperary v Tyrone
GOALKEEPER is one of the most difficult positions to play in Gaelic football but it is becoming more and more one of the most crucial in the game.
Often too it can be one of the last slots filled in a team if you haven’t got a regular keeper and that is how Tyrone net minder Shannon Lynch found herself between the posts.
It goes back to her school days at Loreto Omagh when the then coach Siobhan McCarney, who has been a very influential figure in Tyrone schools football, who also happened to be the Tyrone county goalie at the time too.
“It started one day at school and that was it, simple as that. From school it went to county,” laughs Lynch, but incidentally she doesn’t play there for her club Castlederg. Instead there she holds the middle of the field and playing the game from that perspective she feels helps her when it comes to standing in the number one position.
“Playing outfield as well gives you an idea - when you are playing in goals - what goes through players heads when they are on the attack, how they read the game, that kind of thing. It certainly has helped me.”
It has helped too having a dedicated goalkeeper coach in Liam Swift who was brought in by the Tyrone GAA county board in 2017 to be used across all the teams - men’s football, ladies football, hurling - and it has shown in Lynch’s game. In the semi-final win over Sligo, she saved a second half penalty as well as producing a number of fine saves throughout the game.
“Liam has made a big difference.
“Normally goalkeeper is a position you are thrown into and it is not the easiest position to settle into but you see it is becoming a really important cog in a team and having someone there coaching you solely on that one position can make a huge difference.
“You are a lot more confident in your ability, your agility is better, your thinking is much quicker and when you see a forward bearing down on you, you can make split second decisions and be ready for different scenarios and be calmer under pressure.”
Lynch is only 24-years-old but she is one of the four players who still remain from the 2010 senior team that suffered defeat to Dublin in the All-Ireland Senior Final.
She was only 17 when she played in Croke Park and at that age being so young she thought it wouldn’t have taken a Tyrone team as long to get back to GAA HQ.
It wasn’t a regular year in 2010 for Lynch who only came into the Tyrone set-up midway through the season.
Now she is back again in Croke Park hoping to play her part in a Tyrone victory over Tipperary in the All-Ireland Intermediate Final.
“I hadn’t played in the league back in 2010 and there I was only a handful of games later playing in an All-Ireland final.
To be honest, I didn’t realise it would be that long since until I would be back,” she said.
“At that age you think with the team you are playing in that you will be back again maybe a year or two at the most down the line.
“Instead it has been seven years and to get back to this stage is a huge achievement.”
Lynch, along with Tyrone stalwarts Shannon Cunningham Quinn, Gemma Begley and captain Neamh Woods are the sole 2010 survivors in a team that has been forced to regroup over the last number of years as other players hung up their county boots.
The county made the decision to come down from a senior level to intermediate and rebuild from there and it wasn’t one that was taken lightly.
“You are faced with two decisions - regroup and go down and that is not a easy call to make or stay at the top and suffer defeat after defeat and not see any progression. You want to be able to play at the very top but sometimes you have to be honest and make those tough calls.
“Only four players remain from 2010. The rest are young players.
“To get to the All-Ireland Intermediate final is a big achievement not to be written off and I think the strength of schools football in Tyrone has a lot to do with where the county teams are today.
“The Intermediate championship is not an easy one.
“We found that out last year losing out to Clare in the quarter-finals. This year we always wanted to go one step further than last. We were very disappointed losing out to Clare. We just didn’t perform.
“You wouldn’t have minded being put out by the better team had you known you played but that wasn’t the case for us.”
Well, they have not just went one better than last year but two steps and now the final hurdle is Tipperary.
As much as Tyrone have been many’s favourites for the All-Ireland title this year, equally so have Tipperary and against two strong, forward attacking teams, the goalkeepers could have a very big say in the outcome.
Sunday Sep 24 2017
TG4 All Ireland Senior Championship Final: Dublin v Mayo
DUBLIN and Mayo will battle it out on Sunday for Sam Maguire and the two counties will be back seven days later to see who will get their name inscribed on the Brendan Martin Cup for 2017.
The sides met in the 2003 final with Mayo coming out on top but that was the Westerners’ last success and they have only appeared in one final since - that a loss to Cork four years later.
, on the other hand, have contested six, winning in 2010 when they got the better of Tyrone.
This will be their fourth finals day in-a-row, the three previous contests coming up short against the queens of the game Cork.
Indeed that victory for the Metropolitans in 2010 was the only title not travelling down by the Lee in the last 12 years.
On route to Croker, Dublin have coasted to headquarters, with Waterford in the quarter-final coming the closest to them but still 11 points adrift.
By contrast, Mayo have had a much more difficult route following a heavy Connacht final defeat to Galway.
Manager Frank Brown added to his backroom team following that set back with Peter Lee and Niall Heffernan coming in and the side responded with a qualifier win over Kildare then really set their mark on the campaign when they defeated the strongly fancied Ulster champions Donegal.
If that was not a result to take note of their semi-final one definitely was when they dethroned the champions Cork by two points.
There is no doubt Cora Staunton is Mayo’s golden girl but this year they have showed they have plenty of other talented stars.
The experienced Yvonne Byrne saved a crucial match winning penalty in the final few minutes against the Rebels and along with Martha Carter that experience will be key at the back.
Up front along with Staunton, who is in her 23rd year at senior inter-county level, are up-and-coming stars Grace Kelly and Sarah Rowe, who will be a handful for the Dublin rearguard.
Mayo will enter as underdogs but that will not bother them given they were the same against both Donegal and Cork.
Dublin may have been hoping for another crack at Cork and a chance to put right the wrongs of the last number of years.
Tyrone sent Cork packing to pave the way for Dublin’s only All-Ireland so have Mayo done the same this year?
Dublin may not have been tested to date but when you look at their names on the teamsheet you can understand why they are back yet again.
It could come down to a shootout between Staunton and Sinead Aherne, two of the best forwards in the present game.
Dublin boss Mick Bohan returned for a second time as when he took over the reins from Gregory McGonigle at the beginning of the year. Incidentally he was in the hot seat in that 2003 meeting between the counties.
He has put together a strong side with so many top defenders, Sinead Finnegan, Rachel Ruddy and Sinead Goldrick could all find a spell following Staunton.
At the other end scores are mainly from Aherne but in Carla Rowe, Noelle Healy and Lyndsey Davey they have plenty of girls who know where the posts are.
A point separated the sides in their league meeting back in March, Mayo the victors and this could be as close.
