Hurling & Camogie

Portaferry can finally shed bridesmaids tag in Down decider with Liatroim

Liatroim will be looking to cut the supply to Portaferry forward Niamh Mallon in Sunday's Down senior final
Liatroim will be looking to cut the supply to Portaferry forward Niamh Mallon in Sunday's Down senior final Liatroim will be looking to cut the supply to Portaferry forward Niamh Mallon in Sunday's Down senior final

Down Senior Camogie final: Portaferry v Liatroim Fontenoys (Sunday, Drumaness, 1pm)

THE DOWN senior championship was thrown into confusion in the last of the round robin group games in mid-October.

Until then everything looked to be running to form, including the games earlier that day when Ballygalget and Ballycran had comfortable wins.

However Portaferry not only beat the five in a row chasing Clonduff, but beat them well (1-15 to 0-7) to dump them out of the semi-finals on score difference in a strange game with much of the play squashed into the middle third and only 1-1 from Portaferry’s total coming from open play.

Then, although Ballycran and Ballygalget had both topped the qualification groups, second-placed Portaferry and Liatroim Fontenoys easily won the semi-finals.

That has set up an intriguing decider with the Fontenoys in their first final since 2016 looking to extend their record collection of Down titles to 28 and Portaferry, after four final defeats since 2014, ready to break through the glass ceiling and collect their first crown.

They met in the 2016 final – but the Liatroim team has changed significantly over the five years. Just five starters from then (Dearbhla Magee, Deirdre McCabe, Aimee McAleenan, Alana McCrickard and Kate McAleenan) featured the semi-final against Ballycran.

Since then the Fontenoys have been very much in transition and also rans as the county was dominated by Clonduff.

Dearbhla Magee and Aimee McAleenan of course have progressed significantly in the county team while Karen McMullan, who was in Australia up until 2019, has returned to play a huge role with Down and she is now the experienced leader to whom the young club players look.

McMullan will probably be given a sweeping role on Sunday to deny space and supply to Niamh Mallon, undoubtedly one of the best forwards in camogie at present.

Widely tipped for an Allstar at the end of the month, Mallon is a scoring machine, the player that has to be contained if Liatroim are to win.

From frees she scored 14 points against Clonduff and six against Ballygalget in the last two games, but she also claims a significant number of scores from play – a point illustrated in the semi-final when she dropped into a much deeper role to maintain the lead Portaferry had built up before they lost Maria McNally to a straight red.

McNally card was a harsh call and she will probably miss the final although the progress of 16-year-old Niamh Savage, partnering Saoirse Sands in midfield, was a real bonus for Portaferry. And midfield is a key area for Liatroim with Dearbhla Magee’s pace and accuracy the source of the majority of the Fontenoys’ scores.

But Portaferry have shown a tactical awareness in how they have handled both their last games to secure victories others may not have anticipated. They have beaten the two teams everyone fancied for the final.

Now they have earned the tag of favourites, a strange situation for a club chasing their first ever county title. Bridesmaids four times since 2014, they turn looks to have come around.

But their opponents are always a threat and seem to thrive in finals. Since reaching their first final in 1977, Liatroim have contested 30 deciders and won 27.

I still believe that it is Portaferry’s to lose.