West Clare Gaels seek second Munster title in four seasons

This time three years ago West Clare Gaels won the Munster junior ladies club football title. Their 2-8 to 1-8 defeat of Castleisland Desmonds was followed by an emphatic 3-20 to 1-10 All-Ireland semi-final win over Curry from Sligo. In what was their maiden season, the Gaels were beaten 1-11 to 0-7 by Foxrock-Cabinteely in the All-Ireland final in Toomevara.
Not bad for year one. Season four hasn’t been unkind to West Clare Gaels either. With Patrick Foley (Naomh Eoin) and Darragh Kelly (Kilkee) in charge, they have won the club’s first senior title and have subsequently qualified for Saturday’s Munster intermediate final on Sunday in Ballyagran.
The Clare senior champions will take on Roscarberry from Cork at 1pm. “We’ve no injury problems at the moment anyway. We trained twice last weekend and we’ll train again on Saturday,” Patrick Foley told The Clare Champion.
He acknowledged that adding an intermediate provincial title to the 2007 junior Munster championship would be a remarkable achievement.
“It’s a step up again from three years ago and it would be a great achievement to win it,” he said.
Beaten in the 2008 Clare senior final, West Clare Gaels won their maiden senior title last month, when they beat two in a row champions Banner ladies in the county final.
In last Saturday week’s Munster semi-final West Clare Gaels beat Athea (Limerick) 4-13 to 2-8 in Kilrush. The game was virtually over at half time with the girls from Kilkee and the Loop Head peninsula leading 4-6 to 0-3. They weren’t as impressive in the second half, although they were playing into a strong wind. Still if they are to win on Sunday, they will need to play for most of the 60 minutes.
Many of the players who helped West Clare Gaels to provincial victory in 2007 will be vitally important on Sunday. Sineád and Maria Kelly, Majella Griffin, Denise Geaney, Kathleen Foley, Rita Boland, current captain Michelle Downes, Niamh Gardener and Leanne Lynch are amongst the survivors from ’07, while Megan McGrath, Deirdre Troy and Katie Geoghegan have come onto the team in the interim.
If West Clare Gaels play to near their optimum level in Ballyagran on Sunday, they will have an excellent chance of qualifying for the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final.
A win would represent not just a noteworthy achievement for the Clare senior champions, it would also be a huge boost to ladies football in the county.