Having won their seventh county title in a row, and also defeating the mighty Carnacon for the second year in succession, Kilkerrin Clonberne will face Roscommon’s Kilbride in the Connacht Senior Ladies' Football Championsip final at St Croan’s GAA (2pm ).
Kilkerrin Clonberne manager Kevin Reidy will hope Olivia Divilly can continue her form, having sandwiched a quick trip to Australia for trials in between two sublime performances in the county final and Connacht semi-final. However, it has been an all-round team performance that has made the Galway championship their own in the last number of years, and Kilkerrin/Clonberne will be hoping to continue their push for an All-Ireland medal, having been beaten by the Cork champions in 2018.
With many players involved in the county set up that has improved hugely over the last couple of seasons, these ladies will feel one more push will help get them to the promised land.
Any sort of a win will do, but Reidy has put a huge emphasis on his side playing free-flowing football, which can clearly be seen by some of the scores they have scored in recent times. Kilbride will not be taken for granted, but a win on Sunday will be seen as the next step for his side, taking them within 60 minutes away of a first all-Ireland final appearance at senior level.
Corofin promoted
The first of the two games in Pearse Stadium on Saturday afternoon was the meeting of Corofin and Killanin in the county Junior A final.
Having won the North Board and City and West titles respectively, there was an air of expectation about the decider. The West side took a 0-3 to 0-1 lead before Corofin scored the first of two goals from Colm O’Donovan, a well-worked move which gave him the easiest of finishes.
From then on the North Board side took complete control and with another goal from O’Donovan put his side 2-7 to 0-4 ahead at the break.
Two early second-half points, one from the boot of the evergreen Alan O’Donovan, allowed Corofin to ease off a bit and make some substitutions.
Killanin, to their credit, never gave in, and brought the game back to 2-11 to 1-9 before Corofin’s captain Alan O’Donovan rounded off the scoring with a simple score.
With the experience of O’Donovan and David Morris in attack, and subsitutes Gary Delaney and Joe Canney, this Corofin side was always going to be hard to beat.
Despite a nervous start, they controlled most areas on the field for the next 40 minutes. The O’Donovan brothers stole the show, scoring a total of 2-9 of their teams 2-12. Now promoted to junior for the 2020 season, Corofin will have a team playing in each of the top three championship divisions.
In the minor final that was played as the first part of the double header, Salthill/Knocknacarra had a facile win over Caltra as they won by 3-12 to 1-6. Leading 2-9 to 0-0 at half-time, the game was effectively over as a contest. After Eoin Tinney scored an early goal, Salthill never took a step back. Captain Cathal Sweeney, who is a regular on the Salthill senior side, received the man of the match award.
This Sunday, CLG Bhearna and Killererin will go head-to-head in the final round of the Galway SFC Relegation play-offs.
The scenario is simple.The winning team retains their senior status for 2020, while the losing team will be relegated to intermediate. The game takes place at Pearse Stadium at 2pm.
