This Sunday promises to be a great day of Ladies Football action when both Carnacon and Westport go looking for provincial glory.
The action gets underway at high noon when Westport take on Galway champions St Brendan's, in the intermediate final in Fr Gibbons Park, Claremorris. Westport booked their spot in the final after a titanic battle with St Mary's from Tulsk. The game took almost three and a half hours to complete - with a facial injury giving rise to a 45-minute delay.
Once the action returned on the pitch, extra time could not separate the sides, with the game finishing as a 1-12 to 2-9 draw, necessitating the use of a free kick competition to decide the winner - with Noirin Moran kicking the solitary converted free to send Westport into Sunday's final. The Galway champions, St Brendan's, had a far more prosaic passage to the final, seeing off St Nathy's from Sligo 2-6 to 0-5 in their semi-final.
If the senior final is half-way as good as last year's meeting between Carnacon and Kilkerrin/Clonberne, then Ballyhaunis at 3.30pm is the place to be when they meet, with provincial glory up for grabs. Carnacon booked their place in Sunday's final, putting all the controversy that has dragged on through the late summer behind them, with a comprehensive 9-10 to 0-4 win over Knockmore in the Mayo senior final in Kilmeena, which was even more impressive as they did so without the services of Fiona McHale and Doireann Hughes, who had been sent off in their semi-final win over Moy Davitts.
Erina Flannery bagged three goals in that win, while Cora Staunton chipped in with 2-8 - other goals came from Amy Dowling, Aoife Brennan, Sadbh Larkin and Louise Dowling.
In last year's final the sides were locked level at the end on a score of 5-17 to 6-14. With 4-13 of Carnacon's scores coming from Staunton that day, the replay was just as thrilling, with Carnacon running out 4-10 to 2-13 winners in the replay, with Staunton and Amy Dowling getting late goals to secure the win for their side. Carnacon followed that victory up by marching on to All Ireland glory.
In the Galway final Kilkerrin/Clonberne were far too strong for Corofin, winning by 22 points on a whopping scoreline of 7-16 to 3-6 to claim their sixth Galway title in a row; while that is an impressive record, Carnacon's win was their 19th in a row in Mayo.
