THEY'RE rivals on the ladies' football field, but the county captains of Armagh, Tyrone and Down are currently united in a quest for international netball silverware in the Far East.
Armagh’s Caroline O’Hanlon, Tyrone’s Neamh Woods and Down’s Laura Mason will line out for Northern Ireland in Saturday’s Nations Cup final against Papua New Guinea in Singapore. They each captained their respective counties in the All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship this summer, but being netball team-mates is nothing new for the multi-talented trio.
They already play together as a dynamic mid-court unit for Lisburn-based NI Premier League champions Larkfield, where world-class centre O’Hanlon is the long-serving skipper. That club combination has served new Northern Ireland coach Julie Kimber well in this invitational tournament, which features teams from four continents.
The county captain triumverate started together in the first two round-robin games as the girls in green beat Botswana 41-27 and hosts Singapore 46-35. Englishwoman Kimber has subsequently mixed and matched for the more straightforward fixtures against a multi-national Singapore Invitational team, who replaced late withdrawals Namibia, and minnows Chinese Taipei.
Northern Ireland won 50-21 against Singapore Invitational before crushing Chinese Taipei 74-21, while Papua New Guinea also won their first four fixtures. Sole European representatives Northern Ireland, who are favourites to lift the trophy for the second time, came from behind to win Friday’s dress rehearsal 47-35.
At the 2009 Nations Cup, unfancied Northern Ireland sprung a huge upset when claiming their first ever international trophy but this time, at 12th, are the highest ranked participants, three places ahead of Singapore, with Papua New Guinea a further spot behind.
O’Hanlon is Northern Ireland’s most capped player, while her fellow ladies’ football Allstar Woods returned to the team earlier this year and Mason has been recalled for this tournament having been part of the squad for the 2011 World Cup in Singapore.
