‘County finals are there to be won’ – Laura Rynne

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Inagh-Kilnamona's Laura Rynne shields the ball from St Joseph's Doora/Barefield's Eimear Clune during their Group B, Round 4 game in Gurteen. Photograph by Eugene McCafferty

Inagh-Kilnamona midfielder and joint captain, Laura Rynne is buzzing at the thought of County final day and feels there won’t be anything between the teams with a rub of the green swinging it either way.
“As a panel we are delighted to be back in a final. It’s definitely been a while coming and at times we did wonder would we get there again. We’ve lost the last three semi-finals and that hurts. Last year we lost in extra time and to be honest it was really tough then to see Truagh-Clonlara go on and win it. It did show us how close we were and gave us that extra motivation to work harder this year to try get back to this stage.”
Her team seemed to get better as the year progressed with Laura referencing a couple of group game battles as being crucial to their development.
“In our opening game we had a real tough battle with Feakle-Killanena and we were lucky to emerge victorious. Then we had a real test of our Championship ambitions when playing against Scariff-Ogonnelloe in the final  group game. That was a real end to end battle in difficult conditions which could have gone either way. That evening in Clareabbey really sharpened us up for the semi final.”
The semi final was plain sailing for Rynne and her teammates as they coasted to a comfortable thirteen point success. Was it maybe too easy in terms of preparing for the final?
“Look we played really well against Kilmaley and we feel we are in a good position going into the final. The game itself wasn’t as easy as the scoreline would suggest. Kilmaley fought for every ball. We just happened to get the scores when we needed them. Our forwards have been in tremendous form all campaign and hopefully there’s another big performance in them.”
Where does Laura feel this final will be won or lost?
“There’s never much between any of the top teams and the final could as cliché as it sounds come down to a puck of a ball. Every team needs a bit of luck too on the day. Truagh-Clonlara are an outstanding team. They are the County champions and we will definitely need to get our match ups right on the day. We’ve plenty of experience playing them so that should help but they do have fantastic forwards and we will need to be defensively sound because they can hurt you in the blink of an eye.
“They always try work the ball to the player in the better position but then they’re also capable of getting wonder scores that you can do nothing about. I mean everybody is talking about the point Eimear Kelly got in their semi-final so we have to track every runner and try apply pressure on the shooter at all times.”
What would it mean to get over the line after so many near misses in recent times?
“It would mean everything to us as a group. We have a real bond with each other and there’s a huge hunger amongst the panel. We desperately want to be County Champions but Truagh won’t want to relinquish their crown either. We know we will need to bring intensity and desire to the game and we will have to work harder than we’ve ever done. They really are worthy champions and we know how difficult it will be but we are so determined to go out and give it everything for our families, our friends and for each other. To be honest we just can’t wait for the ball to be thrown in. 
We’ve strengthened our panel this year with some quality young players breaking onto the team. They are hungry for their first Senior medal and the players who have medals want to add to their collection. County finals are there to be won and we will give it everything to try be successful. If we do win it’ll shorten the winter months ahead.”