All-Ireland Senior Club Championship semi-final: Mourneabbey (Cork) (holders) v Donaghmoyne (Monaghan) (Clyda Rovers, 1pm)
FIVE times All-Ireland club winners Donaghmoyne face defending champions Mourneabbey in a hotly anticipated semi-final tomorrow afternoon.
The current Ulster champions, who won a remarkable 12th provincial title in 16 years, defeating Termon in the final two weeks ago, will make the almost four hour trip today to north-west Cork hoping to dethrone the champions and book their place in an eighth All-Ireland final.
Mourneabbey finally joined the champions roll of honour last year after suffering three previous final heartaches and so tough is this competition that it extremely difficult, but not impossible, to successively defend your title. Excluding Ballymacabry from Waterford in the nineties, only Carnacon of Mayo and Donaghmoyne have managed to do it, the Monaghan side achieving that feat by in 2015 and 2016.
And so Francie Coleman’s side hopes to take advantage of the added pressure that comes with being All-Ireland champions, and deny them the chance to make it back-to-back titles.
Donaghmoyne captain Hazel Kingham has been part of all five of those winning All-Ireland teams and knows just how difficult it is to retain the Dolores Tyrrell Cup.
“We know what it is like to be there, to be playing in an All-Ireland semi-final as defending champions and that does come with its own pressure. It’s not an easy task being defending champions, you are the team that everyone wants to emulate and beat at the same time. You put a lot on the line,” she said.
“Mourneabbey have been knocking on the door of All-Ireland glory for a number of years but they finally made the breakthrough last year. Hopefully we can take advantage of that pressure on them as champions because they will be the favourites but it is a game that will be a battle right to the end.”
The two sides know each other well through their club and county connections and they have met each other twice in this competition, in the 2015 final and the 2016 semi-final. Both times, Donaghmoyne have prevailed. However, as Kingham knows only two well, past results do not dictate the future.
“Luckily enough the two times we have met them, we have beaten them but past results are no guarantee that the same is going to happen again and since they have become stronger, more resilient and they certainly will not be giving up their title easily, especially with playing at home too,” she said.
Mourneabbey, who completed six in-a-row Munster titles defeating Ballymacabry on the same day Donaghmoyne clinched Ulster, are littered with Cork county stars including O’Sullivan sisters Ciara and Doireann, who scored 2-11 between them in that Munster final victory. They have also been boosted by the presence of Dublin footballer and four times All Star Noelle Healy who is now working down there and that has undoubtedly strengthened them. Mourneabbey, however, did leak four goals that day and that is something manager Shane Ronayne pointed to as room for improvement and no doubt, Donaghmoyne will have taken note of any defensive weakness.
Donaghmoyne seem to have an invincibility about them but it is more so their never say die attitude that has brought them unrivalled success. When it looked like Termon might pip them to the Ulster title, they kept fighting away and it was their young and up-coming players who provided the match winning scores.
Eimear Traynor and Louise Kerley hit late points to seal the win and while Mourneabbey know all about the threat posed by the likes of Sharon and Cora Courtney, Cathriona McConnell and the returning Amanda Casey, they will have to be very wary of the new blood as well.
“Both sides are very strong all over the field and just as Mourneabbey have players to watch so too does Donaghmoyne. Amanda [Casey] is back this year and that has given us a great boost. Teeny [Cathriona McConnell] is back to full form, our underage players like Eimear Traynor and Lauren Garland, who played for the county minors and have final experience under them too, and that all helps us a team,” said Kingham.
“It was our younger players, Eimear and Louise Kerley who hit those winning scores against Termon and in them I think we have players who Mourneabbey may not know too much about whereas they would know Teeny and the Courtneys from playing against them for club and county down through the years.”
The feeling of deflation after losing last year’s All-Ireland semi-final to Foxrock-Cabinteely has been a driving force behind their journey so far this year and the real battle they came through in the final has ben the best form of preparation for tomorrow’s semi-final as they look to get back to another final.
“We still feel hurt and disappointment from losing the All-Ireland semi-final last year. And from the start of the year we wanted to do everything to make sure we had the opportunity to get back to this stage. We still only took it one game at a time but last year’s hurt was driving us forward and that hurt is driving us to do better this time around.
“Having such a tough Ulster final against Termon was the best preparation coming into this game. When the game was in the mix right at the end it was our never-say-die attitude that took us out the other end. We kept going and we give everything to the end,” she added.
The winner will meet either Galway's Kilkerrin/Clonberne or Dublin's Foxrock-Cabinteely in the final.
Fixtures
Tomorrow:
All-Ireland Senior Club Championship semi-finals: Mourneabbey (Cork) v Donaghmoyne (Monaghan) (Clyda Rovers, 1pm), Kilkerrin-Clonberne (Galway) v Foxrock-Cabinteely (Dublin) (Connacht Centre of Excellence, 2pm)
All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championshp semi-finals: St Paul’s (Antrim) v St Nathy’s (Sligo) (St Paul’s Shaws Road, 1pm), Naomh Ciaran (Offaly) v Inch Rovers (Cork) (Ferbane, 2pm)
All-Ireland Junior Club Championship semi-finals: Edendork (Tyrone) v CL McHale Rovers (Mayo) (Pairc Arthur Mallon, Edendork, 1pm), Donoughmore (Cork) v Navan O’Mahonys (Meath) (Donoughmore Community Pitch, Stuake, 2pm)
