With the winter biting at their heels when they take to the field in O’Connor Park in Tullamore on Sunday, Carnacon go searching for their third All Ireland senior club championship crown and their second on the trot. Some things in life are inevitable such as death and taxes, but so it seems are Carnacon at the business end of the club championship season. It seems like a lifetime ago when another Mayo club was able to escape their clutches and try and make a steal into Connacht and beyond.
It’s no surprise that in the opposite corner this Sunday will be a team from Cork, the Rebel county has taken on the pre-eminent status in the ladies’ game from Mayo in recent years, but there have been enough kicks of life from Mayo sides over the last few year’s to show that they aren’t going away just yet. None more so than in last year’s club final when the same two sides met and it was Carnacon who went home with the silverware they are back to protect on Sunday. Last year’s final ended in a decisive win for Carnacon on a scoreline of 2-14 to 1-6, with who else but Cora Staunton top scoring for the day with 1-11, the other Carnacon goal coming from Fiona McHale.
Testing times during the championship
Carnacon overcame Donaghmoyne a fortnight ago in the All Ireland semi-final with realtive ease in Clogher, but they have had a few tight scrapes on the way and some not-so-hard encounters. They cliamed the Mayo title back in September when they took to the field to find no opponents to face them and had the surreal task of working the ball down field for Fiona McHale to finish the ball to an empty net to record the win. But next time out things got a lot tougher for them when they faced off aginst Galway champions Corofin in a bruising encounter, but the central Mayo girls managed to shake off their old rivals in the end to set up a Connacht final against Roscommon champions St Brigid’s where they were able to turn on the style in a late flurry to send them into the final four of the championship and the home tie against the Monaghan and Ulster champions Donaghmoyne two weeks ago.
Learning from mistakes
Carnacon manager Jimmy Corbett knows it’s going to be a tough task on Sunday but he’s looking foward to the task. “It’s great to be back in the All Ireland final and to have the chance to put together back-to-back titles, which is no easy task. But Inch Rovers are going to be some challenge come Sunday.” Getting nearly caught out in the Connacht final this year was a turning point, according to Corbett, and has put them in the right frame of mind going into this final showdown. “We were probably a bit ahead of ourselves in the Connacht final and thinking about the All Ireland semi-final and we were nearly caught out on the day. It was one of those days where nothing seemed to work out right and it was only the fact that we could turn it on in the last couple of minutes that saw us through that day. We have learned a great deal from that game about making sure we have our heads in the game right from the off and not thinking we’re just going to win because we show up.”
Winning the big games
The lack of games in the Mayo championship was a hindrance early on in the championship and could have cost Carnacon in the early stages of the provincial championship according to the Carnacon manager. “ That wasn’t ideal preparation at all and going in cold to the Connacht championship without playing a county final is not the right kind of preparation for any side. But we’ve have a number of tough games over the past few weeks and the girls are all in good shape for Sunday and we’ll be ready to go come Sunday. We’ve had a few poor games and bad starts, but you’re going to have one of them every now and again and it’s all about making sure that you get over them and come out on top, which we have done so far, so we have to make sure come Sunday we’re there or thereabouts at least when the crunch time comes.”
Top quality on both sides
Both sides have a list of big name players in their sides who can all influence the outcome of the final: the likes of Cora Staunton, Fiona McHale, Claire Egan, Sharon McGing and Natasha Beegan are all potential match winners for the Mayo girls. But their opponents aren’t short of one or two of their own with Angela Walsh, Amy O’Shea, Mary O’Connor and Claire Keohan all top-drawer players themselves. Come Sunday afternoon it will be up to the 15 in green and red to do the necessary to retain the title and even though it will be a tough encounter they should have just enough to come through at the end and deliver.
