Six of the best for Eadestown or atonement for Larries
Defending five in a row Kildare LGFA senior football Champions, Eadestown, look to make it six in a row when they take on St Laurence’s in the Final of the Joe Mallon Motors LGFA SFC Final on this Friday night in Cedral St Conleth’s Park, throw in 7.45pm.
It’s a repeat of last year’s final when Eadestown claimed victory over the Larries on a scoreline of 5-15 to 0-6.
St Laurence’s feel that they didn’t do themselves justice in last year’s Final as they went into the game full of confidence after winning the League title earlier in the year. The Larries topped Group A in this year’s championship with nine points, three ahead of Eadestown whom they beat in Round 1 of the Group Stages. In the semi-final Eadestown defeated Kilcullen 3-6 to 0-5 while it was much tighter in the other semi final with Larries overcoming Sarsfields by 1-11 to 0-11.
Speaking at the Managers and Captains at the Preview Night for this year’s Finals in Joe Mallon Motors last week, new Eadestown manager. Liam McLoughlin, said, “I’ve never been too far away from the group but it’s an honour for me to manage my own club. The players are honest and hardworking and that makes it easier for me.”
Continuing the Eadestown manager said, “there has been a big turnover of players from this year to last year. I tried to get a look at new players during the League to see how we could develop them into senior championship players so we learned a lot during the League.”
The Sky Blues captain, Gráinne Kenneally, said, “We have nothing but respect for all the teams and there are such strong teams in Kildare. We were nervous about Kilcullen in the semi final and we knew we needed to get a good start.” The return from injury of Hazel McLoughlin has been a big boost for the defending champions according to the captain. “Hazel came back this year just in time for us and she is Eadestown true and true. What a role model she is for the younger girls coming up.”
St Laurence’s also have a new manager in Seamus McClean and he was delighted that his team were back in a Joe Mallon Motors SFC Final for the second year in a row. Speaking at the Preview Night the Larries manager reflected on the opening round win over the defending champions. “Look if you are going to win the championship you have to beat every team that’s there. It was a big boost to beat Eadestown in the first game. It set us up and took the pressure off for the second game. We won our three Group matches so we were happy enough to top the Group.”
The Larries manager was delighted to get over Sarsfields in the semi-final. “It was a very tough match in very tough conditions. Our team played very well and the subs who came on made a big impact on the game,” he said.
St Laurence’s captain, Niamh O’Connor, felt it was very important for her team to get back to Friday night’s Final. “All of the team would say that we didn’t perform last year and it made us look like the team that we aren’t. We were hungry this year to get to the Final again and show what team we actually are,” she said.
“It was our first Championship Final in a long time so it was new to a lot of our players. We parked that for this year and got to the League Final again and now to the Championship Final as well,” she added.
The opening round win over Eadestown will surely give St Laurence’s a boost, but unlike last year they need to make a strong start if they are to deny the defending champions from claiming the title for another year.
