Manager Mary O'Shea says she has great belief in the Mullinahone football team

She acknowledges that Saturday’s currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Ladies Club Intermediate Football Championship final at Croke Park will be a big occasion, but Mullinahone manager Mary O’Shea will also be telling her players that it’s just another game, while trying to keep their feet on the ground.

“It will be certainly fabulous for the girls to play there”, says O’Shea, as the team continues its preparation for the Croke Park showpiece against Longford Slashers.

She hopes that the experience of some players who have already played at GAA headquarters will be an advantage.

Denise Gaule and Michaela Kenneally have played camogie for Kilkenny at the famous northside Dublin venue while both of Mary’s daughters, Lorraine and Aoibhe O’Shea, as well as Nicole Shelly have also lined out there with the Tipperary footballers.

“Hopefully their experience will be vital. It’s a whole new scene for the other girls but I’m confident they will be up for it.”

On the eve of the biggest-ever match for the Mullinahone ladies, who less than a year ago appeared in the All-Ireland junior final, their manager describes it as “the stuff of dreams.”

“We never thought in a million years, having contested the junior final last February, that we would be back in another All-Ireland final, and this time in Croke Park (where the club finals are being held for the first time).”

Paying tribute to her team, she says “they’re a great bunch of girls. They never give up, even when things go against them.”
She says that pure determination and grit carried them through the semi-final (after extra-time) against Derrygonnelly Harps.

“Their attitude to training has been phenomenal. A lot of them are either in college or working in Dublin or Cork but they still come home to train.

“They have a huge level of commitment and they don’t get a penny for it. The ladies play second fiddle to the men, there’s no mileage for these players.

“They’ve trained in all kinds of weather, in thunder and lightning and rain, but it’s paying off for us.”

The panel is grateful for the use of Fethard Town Park, where they have been training on both the all-weather pitch and the sand-based grass surface.

The average age of the Mullinahone team is 22-23 and eight new players have been introduced to the panel this season. They are Mary and Annie Dunne, Holly McGowan, Philomena Gilman, Majella McCarthy, Rosa White, Lauren Downey and former Gortnahoe player Ailish Langton.

Their arrival has more than compensated for the departures of players such as Alison Fennelly and Catherine Foley in the past year.

Mary O’Shea says that the team’s progress has captured the imagination of the parish, and she says that supporters will be out in force in Dublin on Saturday, with buses organised for the trip to the capital.

“There’s a lot of buzz around the village, it’s a big occasion for everybody.”

The panel received a boost last weekend with the news that Lorraine O’Shea has been chosen by the Tipperary United Sports Panel for an Annerville sports award, which she will receive at a function in Clonmel next month.

An all-rounder and one of two sisters on the team, the PE and maths teacher has excelled at several different sports, having been capped for Ireland at schools volleyball and winning a European silver relay medal at a time when she competed in the colours of Kilkenny City Harriers. She’s also the holder of a national medal for tag rugby, and won several Community Games honours at the long jump and sprint.

As the team prepares to face what she describes as “a formidable” Longford Slashers side, whose players are “physical and tall”, Mary O’Shea says “we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully it will work out for us on the day.

“The girls are well up for it. The sooner they get onto the pitch and the match starts the better.”

Describing herself as “hopeful and confident”, she says “all I hope for the girls is that they play to their potential and we’ll see where that takes us.

“I have great belief in those girls and they have great belief in themselves. And that is crucial.”

Saturday’s game starts at 3pm and will be shown live on TG4.

It will be followed at 5pm by the senior final between Donaghmoyne (Monaghan) and the holders Kilkerrin-Clonberne of Galway, which will also be shown live on TG4.