Local Women Armagh Senior championship final:
Ballymacnab v Granemore (tonight, Athletic Grounds, 7.30pm)
IF YOU were to call this Armagh senior championship final on the evidence of the two semi-finals played a fortnight ago, there would be no doubt that you would plump for Ballymacnab completing three in-a-row and moving to the top of the table with 18 titles.
There was much more urgency in the second game in the semi-final double-header and Madden went at the champions from the start. However Ballymacnab got the run of the ball during the opening quarter, scored three goals and put the game beyond their challengers.
Still their defence had to work hard against the physicality of the Madden girls who shot a number of wides that could well have pulled them back into the game. Shelly McArdle, Louise Toner, Laura Smyth all excelled around the half-back line and midfield for the holders.
But it was the promptings of Ellie McKee, Eimear Smyth and Aoibhinn O’Hare up front that led to the early scores and they maintained the gap by popping over a point or two in reply to every lift that Madden got.
By contrast the first game between Granemore and An Port Mór was laboured particularly during the opening half with Ciara Hill’s long-range scores the main event.
The move of centre-back Kate Smyth to full-forward lifted the challenge in the second half and she was threatening every time she got near the ball, finishing with a late goal.
The Doyles were also a threat and their points, especially Katie’s frees, pulled Granemore clear in the third quarter. They were also, as a team, able to respond to An Port Mór closing the game to a single point at the second water break.
Looking at the Granemore performance through a wider lens however, it was pretty good in that they have managed to get themselves back into the final without top scorer Rachel Merry, a long-term absentee through injury and without county defender Gráinne McWilliams.
Neither will be available for the final. The further Granemore progress, the more acute the absence of the pair will be felt – and nowhere more likely than in this derby fixture when they attempt to avenge last year’s defeat and win a fourth title in six years.
Ballymacnab struggled against Tullysaran in the quarter-finals, a game that went score for score. Were they that much better for the semi-final or did the early goals give them a platform from which they could close down the Madden game?
They may not be quite as good as the semi-final scoreline suggests, but by the same token it will be difficult for Granemore to break them down often enough at the back to win back the title.
