PLAYERS from the 2021 currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Ladies Football Club Finalists have gathered at Croke Park ahead of three eagerly-anticipated fixtures.
Clubs from five counties – Cork, Galway, Dublin, Mayo and Tipperary – have their eyes firmly set on silverware as they look ahead to the Senior, Intermediate and Junior deciders.
First up next Saturday, January 29, the Senior Final features Mourneabbey (Cork) and Kilkerrin-Clonberne (Galway) in a live Galway Bay FM and TG4 fixture that will have a 1pm start at St Brendan’s Park, Birr. This game is a repeat of the dramatic 2019 Final between the teams at the TUS Gaelic Grounds, which was settled by a late Laura Fitzgerald point for Mourneabbey.
For Mourneabbey, managed by Cork Senior supremo Shane Ronayne, Saturday’s game will mark their sixth season appearing in a Senior All-Ireland Club Final. Following Final heartbreak in 2014, 2015 and 2017, Mourneabbey finally cracked the code in 2018 when they defeated Dublin’s Foxrock-Cabinteely, before getting the better of Kilkerrin-Clonberne a year later to claim back-to-back titles.
That was Kilkerrin-Clonberne’s first experience of a Senior All-Ireland Club Final, and, managed by Willie Ward, they’ll be aiming to go one better on this occasion. Willie’s twin daughters Nicola and Louise, who’s team captain, will lead the Kilkerrin-Clonberne charge while the Divilly sisters, Olivia and Siobhan, are both experienced county players. The Kilkerrin-Clonberne side is sprinkled with inter-county talent from various grades, including the Noone sisters, Hannah, Eva and Lynsey.
Mourneabbey have also been around the block and they have Cork stars Bríd O’Sullivan, Eimear Meaney, Maire O’Callaghan, and the O’Sullivan sisters, Ciara and Doireann, in their ranks. Mourneabbey can also call upon the services of the aforementioned Fitzgerald, who has scored ten goals in her last three club outings, including four in the All-Ireland semi-final victory over Meath’s Dunboyne.
Kilkerrin-Clonberne, meanwhile, enjoyed victory over five-time winners Donaghmoyne from Monaghan in the last four and will hope to finally get one over on Mourneabbey, having also lost semi-finals against them in 2015 and 2018.
At a Croke Park photocall ahead of the games, Mourneabbey were represented by vice-captain Laura Fitzgerald, with captain Louise Ward present from Kilkerrin-Clonberne.
Saturday January 29:
Currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Ladies Senior Club Final – Kilkerrin-Clonberne (Galway) v Mourneabbey (Cork); St Brendan’s Park, Birr, 1pm. LIVE on GALWAY BAY FM and TG4
