TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship Final
FERMANAGH captain Joanne Doonan says victory over Louth in Sunday’s TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship final would be the topping on the cake in what has already been a memorable year for the 25-year-old.
She captained her side to the Division Four league title earlier this year and just a few weeks she was signed by AFLW side Carlton on a rookie contract for next season. Doonan is another success story from the CrossCoders program that saw Ulster star Yvonne Bonnner make the move Down Under to Greater Western Sydney Giants last year and will stay for another year, while her Donegal county and club team-mate Katie Herron, who was part of the CrossCoders camp that Doonan attended back in May, is also going to ply her trade at the professional sport with Western Bulldogs, and Cavan’s Ashling Sheridan was signed by Collingwood earlier this year too.
It has been a ‘whirlwind’ time of late as days after returning from Australia where she had gone out to Carlton she was sprung off the bench late in the first half of Fermanagh’s All-Ireland semi-final against London to put in a captain’s performance as the Erne County overturned a six point deficit to run out four point winners.
“Once I got the news that I was getting the contract, it was good to know that it was always going to be there and I could focus on the football. It definitely has been a brilliant year and obviously winning in Croke Park would be a topper,” said Doonan.
Aussie Rules was never really top of the agenda for the Kinawley player but with the camp in Athlone held over a weekend that did not clash with Gaelic football, she decided to apply and give it a go. She purchased a Sherrin to grasp the basic skills beforehand and even sent skills videos off for analysis to clubs over there, which had drummed up some interest even before the CrossCoders camp.
With the camp over, her focus returned to championship football, but the lines of communication remained open and she was asked to come to Australia over a long weekend last month where the next chapter in her football career unfolded.
The announcement of her Carlton signing last week, as she became their first Irish recruit, has understandably brought a lot of attention on the Kinawley player, who at the same time is keen to ensure all the focus is not on her but instead on the immediate task in hand of plotting Louth’s downfall at GAA Headquarters at noon on Sunday.
This will be Fermanagh’s four All-Ireland final in 10 years and their second in three years but they have yet to win a final in Croke Park. They lost the 2009 and 2014 interemdiate finals and their 2017 junior decider against Derry ended in a dramatic draw before they emerged victorious from the replay in Clones.
It would be extra, extra special then to climb the steps of the Hogan for the first time to lift the West County Hotel Cup.
“It is not every day that you get to play in an All-Ireland final, in Croke Park, and you want to take the opportunity when you get it,” she said. “You want to take it all in but at the same time you can’t let the occasion pass you by. Two years ago we lifted the cup in Clones it would be unbelievable to do it in Croke Park this time.”
After that win two years ago they made the step up to intermediate last year but a difficult transition meant they were relegated straight back down again. However, under new manager Jonny Garrity this year, Fermanagh have turned their fortunes around and are on the brink of intermediate football once again.
It has not all be plain sailing however with a shock defeat to Antrim in the Ulster final at the end of June but that defeat says Doonan was the making of this side.
“Last year was disappointing but Jonny and the management team believed in us from the start and made us believe in ourselves again. I don’t think they were expecting that much from us this year but they knew we had the potential and they have brought us together,” she said.
“It is very easy to be positive all the time when things are going well and to win a trophy so early in the season with the league was a big change for us. But losing the Ulster final changed us; it brought us closer together, tested our character and how we would react and that is why we are here preparing for an All-Ireland final.
“It has been a long year and for a lot of girls this is their first year of senior inter-county football and to be put into a competitive environment like they have really tests you - you go forward and you either win or you learn.
“We learned so much from that Ulster final defeat and we will take that experience and everything else we have learned from the year and bring it to Croke Park and hopefully we can finish it off on a high on Sunday.”
