Loreto Clonmel travel north to bring Munster football glory to Tipperary this Saturday

Loreto Clonmel come into this Saturday’s Munster Senior A PPS Ladies Football decider in Nenagh with a good degree of pedigree in this competition and plenty of real quality in their ranks.

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The Tipperary school have won this competition three times since 2018, with the most recent coming in 2023 after a comprehensive win over John the Baptist Community School Hospital in March of that year, but has undergone somewhat of a rebuild since that win.

Their manager, Sinead O’Dwyer, spoke about the success in years gone by but highlighted that this new crop has been a work in progress to get to this point in the last three years.

“Obviously, we’re very much looking forward to it,” said, speaking about Saturday’s final in Nenagh.

“We have had a lot of success in previous years, but it’s actually been, I think, three or four years since we have contested the senior competition.

“So, you know, we’re sitting with a young crop of girls, kind of starting all over again, starting afresh. You know, we would have lost a lot of the sixth years from the 2020, 2021, 2022 group.

“So yeah, look, delighted to be back there and delighted that we get the opportunity to contest it and kind of be back at the top of where we want to be every year. But, you know, we’re just relishing the opportunity to get there now this year.”

O’Dwyer admitted that they have gotten some luck with the group draw and the knockout games that have fallen in their favour, as they fought their way to the final with a good performance against Midleton in the semi-final.

“You know, we probably had maybe a little bit of a lighter run through the group stages. You know, we played very, very well too and got two wins from two.

“And then we faced Ursuline Thurles in a quarter-final. That was a big mental and physical win for us because they had beaten us in a junior final last year, so there was a lot of, you know, old wars to kind of face there.

“But, you know, when we came through that game, it kind of gave us a really big boost.

“And then Midleton as well. Sure, like I said, Midleton have had a fair share of tough battles. It was a really tough game, but again, the girls just found another level.

“The improvement was there and we got the win, and they got a good win at the end.”

There are plenty of miles between Clonmel and Spanish Point, and that will mean that the teams have a big gap in knowledge of each other, and that brings its own challenges, according to O’Dwyer, whose research on her Clare opponents has ignited an admiration for the work they have done to get to this point.

“We’ve never played St. Joseph’s Spanish Point before. We’ve never come up against them in any grades.

“They’ve come up through the grades, but the work that they’ve done down there is phenomenal. They’ve come up through C and D over the last couple of years. They look very much like a team on the up.

“I think the momentum for ourselves has gone well and has improved each round. So hopefully now we can keep that trend going for the weekend.”

This Loreto team is packed with high-quality operators across the board. Evanne Duffy is a current Tipperary minor camogie panellist, while the team also has two current Waterford senior football panellists in the form of Summer Peters and Grace Carrigan.

Local talent in the form of Clonmel Commercials duo Chloe Keane and Emma Kiely from the Tipperary minor footballers, will also take watching in what is a young team that also boasts younger talent in Emma Culligan, Rebecca Hewitt, and Farah Madigan.

Football in Tipperary has been renewed in recent years and even more so in Clonmel over the last few weeks, with the crosstown High School qualifying for the U19A final in early February, and the success and hard work of the clubs in the catchment area has begun to bear massive fruit.

“It’s fantastic for the town. People up in the High School would agree we’re very lucky to have the clubs feeding us from the local areas. 

“We have massive feeder clubs between Clonmel Commercials and Moyle Rovers, Ballymacarbry feeding into them, Brian Borus, Cahir.

“You know, they’re doing the groundwork, I suppose, in the clubs. Then it’s our job to try and pull them together when they come in and put on the green and red.

“And I’d say for the High School, I imagine it’s the same. But it’s a real testament to the town and to the clubs in the surrounding areas to have both of them in an A-grade senior final.”

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