Northern Property Antrim Ladies’ SFC final
Moneyglass v St Paul’s (Sunday, Davitt Park, 4pm)
ST Ergnat’s Moneyglass can make it a hat-trick of Antrim titles if they defeat St Paul’s in Sunday’s senior county final at Davitt Park.
This will be the ninth final in the last 12 years that these two sides have contested and after years of St Paul’s dominance it is only recently that Moneyglass have turned the tide. They will not be ready just yet to let St Paul’s get back to winning ways.
Davitt Park, where Moneyglass have won the last two finals, is a ground that players on both sides are very familiar with, with a large percentage of Antrim’s Ulster intermediate winning side coming from either of the two.
The defending champions will start as strong favourites based not just on having won the last two titles, but having already beaten their opponents in the first round-robin group game of the championship on a one-sided 4-15 to 0-9 scoreline.
Moneyglass followed that up with wins over Glenravel and St Brigid’s to book their place in the final, while St Paul’s bounced back from that defeat to see off the same two teams and also seal their final spot.
Moneyglass reached last year’s Ulster senior final, losing out to champions Donaghmoyne. Despite it being theirs – and indeed any Antrim club’s – first senior provincial decider, they ran the 14-times Ulster champions all the way, and no doubt their goal is to try and go one step better this year.
However, there is a lot of football to be played before an Ulster final comes around, and Moneyglass manager Charlie O’Kane will not be looking any further ahead than this final against St Paul’s.
He will know too that nothing can be read into that championship group game between the sides back at the beginning of the month.
Sharp-shooter Orlaith Prenter, who was Antrim’s chief scoring threat during the county season, hit 3-10 of that 4-15 against St Paul’s and she continued in that rich vein of form against St Brigid’s and Glenravel.
However, Moneyglass are certainly not a one-player team. They have multiple county players like captain Cathy Carey, goalkeeper Anna McCann, Theresa Mallon, Sarah and Maria O’Neill, Aine and Bronagh Devlin and Eleanor Mallon, and young players who have been part of successful underage teams breaking through.
For St Paul’s Lara Dahunsi, who was also a pivotal part of Antrim’s successful year, has been a big player.
They will need her and other players like Ciara Brown and Aine Tubridy, Eimile Duffy, Niamh Ritchie, Stacey McCann and Aoife Mervyn to have big games and everything go right if they are to deny Moneyglass the three in-a-row.
