Senior Medallion Shield final: Tuesday 11am: Peace Link, Monaghan
St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon v St Clare’s, Ballyjamesduff
Although St Patrick’s Academy won four of the first six Senior Medallion Shield finals back at the start of the Millennium, they have not done well in more recent finals with some of the present squad hoping to make it third time lucky when they line out this morning on the Peace Link Pitch in Monaghan.
Two years ago they lost narrowly to St Louis, Kilkeel in a very closely-fought final at the Dub and then last year Loreto, Cavan had a comfortable win over them at Garvaghey. Another Cavan side, St Clare’s Ballyjamesduff, stand in the way of the Academy who draw their players from both Tyrone and Armagh club teams.
They were comfortable enough in their league games and looked to be putting away Sacred Heart Newry with ease in the first half of the semi-final at the end of November.
However their lead of 3-4 to 0-2 at the break was cut significantly during the second half as the defence had to stand up to sustained pressure. Áine Fitzgerald, Aisling McLaughlin and Áine McNulty earned their stripes during that period while earlier Edendork’s Niamh Forker, Eglish’s Reagan Fay, Derrytresk’s Sian Fitzgerald and Jessica Hamill from St Bridget’s Armagh were enjoying plenty of possession up front.
Opponents St Clare’s have been steadily rising in schools’ camogie in tandem with their feeder clubs of Denn, Laragh and particularly Crosserlough, who took the Ulster Junior title for the first time in October.
Defender Siobhan O’Reilly played in that club run and she has been a driving force for the school team as well as they eased their way to the decider with victories over the Newry schools and, in the semi-final, St Colm’s Draperstown.
Many of the girls are footballers as well and centre-forward Shanise Fitzsimons who was Cavan minor player of 2017 was recently named in both the Ulster schools’ football and camogie All-star teams.
Shanise regularly drops back into a role as an extra midfielder while still the able to carry the sliotar into scoring territory and she is the team’s top scorer.
Regular midfielder Katelyn McGonnell and Jasmine Brady take up more defensive roles as a result and that makes the team difficult to break down, something that is evident in the failure of opponents to run up many scores against them.
Loreto, in winning this title last season, has set a bench-mark for Cavan teams but Ballyjamesduff look fairly capable of reaching that bench-mark in their first final.
However the Academy’s experience from the last two finals might just prove decisive if there is not a lot between the teams in the last ten minutes.
St Clare’s: A Kerrigan, L Briody, E Plunkett, S Finnegan, N Majola, S O’Reilly, C Maher, K McGonnell, J Brady, H Boylan, S Fitzsimons, E Tierney, D Kaledek, S Curran, S Slowey
Subs: E Briody, D Reilly, H Fitzsimons, M Cusack Smith, T Nash, A Lovett, C Charters, M Brady, S Reilly
St Patrick’s Academy: A Fitzgerald, S Palmer, A McLaughlin, C Nelis, R Cunningham, A McNulty, A McAteer, R Faye, J Hamill, S Fitzgerald, N Forker capt., AJ Kernan, N Elian, C Little, R O’Neill
Subs: E McLaughlin, G O’Connor, C Ballintine, S McGeary, A Ferran, N Walker, C O’Neill, C Doyle, F Farley, A Forker
