Feakle-Killanena and St Josephs go to battle on Sunday afternoon to lay claim to the Intermediate Championship and lift the Fr Liam Murray Cup. There’s also the carrot of playing Senior Club camogie in 2020.
On paper Feakle-Killanena would-be odds-on favourites to take the title. They cruised to victory in their group games where the narrowest margin of victory was five points, and that came against their opposition in Sunday’s decider. Manager Ger Conway admits they are pleased to be in that position.
“At the start of the year it was our aim to reach the final and it’s great to have gotten there. The girls have put in a great effort and everything has gone according to plan so far in that we have won all our games relatively comfortably. We have had tough battles in there too even though the score lines may not have suggested it at times” he noted.
These sides have already met in the group stages with the East Clare outfit coming out on top. Conway is expecting another huge test this time around.
He said: “We met St Joseph’s in Gurteen and had a right good contest with them. We have had good tough tests across the league and championship so it all comes down now to this last one. If we could one more result now it would get us over the line. It would be massive for the club to get to senior because we are quite a young team. We have only a few over 21 years old and we are going down as far as 16 years olds too. A lot of them would have played for the county at the various grades so that is good experience to bring it to the table”.
Feakle/Killanena are balanced all over the field. Shauna Canny is a reliable pair of hands in the goalmouth, with Evelyn Duggan, Eileen Daly and Ella MacNamara strong in defence. Up front the scoring threat of Robyn Conway and Jodi Guilfoyle cannot be ignored, while they have two excellent free takers in Regan Conway and Lorna McNamara.
Hunger can often be the best sauce and St Josephs have that impetus of losing the 2018 final to Kilkishen/Bodyke to spur them on. Both sides amassed an impressive seventeen goals apiece in the group games, and in the semi finals, it was Feakle-Killanena who added a further six green flags to their impressive goal haul. The other semi final saw St Josephs needing extra time to get over Eire Og. Their manager Martin Moloney is hopeful they can go one better this time around.
“We are delighted to be in the final again because it was a target of ours to get back here after losing out to Kilkishen-Bodyke last year. That defeat was a driving force for us in trying to achieve a spot in the decider and hopefully then to push on and secure the title. The girls dug really deep last week in tough conditions which really reflects the effort they have put in all year to get us here. Eire Óg they forced us to dig deep to pull out the win and we would hope that game will stand to us now ahead of another tough test this weekend. Feakle-Killanena have been fairly convincing winners of all their games but there was only a few points between us when we met earlier in the year so hopefully we can close that gap” he noted.
For St Josephs Karen McMahons puckouts will be crucial. Their link up play thus far in the Championship has proven to be strong. Orla Moloney, Megan O’Brien and Chloe Towey will need to be alert to the dangers of the Killanena-Feakle forwards. Louise Woods will be vital to the St Josephs attack, while Aisling McMahon’s free taking will also have a big role to play on the day.
Extra time is on the menu and may well be required to separate these two to see where the Fr Liam Murray Cup will spend the winter.