Bridie McMenamin Shield final: Ruairí Óg (Antrim) v Ballerin (Derry) (tomorrow, Ahoghill, 1pm)
WHILE there have been a couple of unexpected scorelines along the way, the Bridie McMenamin Shield final still has thrown up the final most people expected to happen at the start of the competition.
Ballerin were the first to experience an unexpected tight encounter. When they travelled down to Killygordon most expected that the local Marcievicz club would roll over as they had done in last year’s quarter-final in Corrigan Park.
They didn’t and instead chased after Ballerin’s good start and were level by the third quarter, but succumbed to a couple of late scores from former Derry star Sinéad Faulkner.
Last week, Faulkner (4-2), Caoimhe Higgins (2-7) and Clodagh Moore (0-5) accounted for all but one point as Ballerin overran a weakened East Belfast side.
Ruairí Óg didn’t have a quarter-final and started off very brightly against Éire Óg Carrickmore on Saturday with three goals from Monique O’Boyle in the first quarter. The game settled down after that and the Tyrone champions gave them a tight enough challenge for the rest of the game, despite only scoring once from play.
Faulkner et al. will certainly pose a greater scoring threat, but Clodagh McAlister at full-back and 16-year-old Abi McNeill at centre half-back are very capable of dealing with that threat.
Very little have separated the Antrim and Derry representatives in each of the last three finals; there was a point margin in both the last two, while a very late goal from Noreen Graham opened Ahoghill’s margin of victory to six points over Lavey in 2019.
I expect this final to follow the same path with Ballerin, if they can reproduce the Derry final performance, capable of taking the Shield home across the Bann
