Geraghty believes Westport can rattle giants of ladies game
Westport's Fionnula McLaughlin taking on Nicola Ward of Kilkerrin-Clonberne during last season's Connacht LGFA senior championship final at Swinford Amenity Park. Westport will have home advantage this time when the sides renew rivalries next Sunday. Picture: Conor McKeown
For Westport, it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire. After defeating their rivals Knockmore to retain the Mayo senior title for the first time, they must now face down the challenge of the undisputed best team in the country.
Indeed, both these teams who meet on the shores of Clew Bay next Sunday (2pm in Westport) have become accustomed to the winners circle. The reigning Galway, Connacht and All-Ireland champions are definitely on another stratosphere in this regard, seeking an eighth consecutive provincial title – a ninth in eleven years – as well as a fifth All-Ireland title in a row. But Westport have themselves begun to make inroads to some degree on domestic dominance; they have won all three Mayo competitions they’ve entered this year, the Memorial League, the senior league and now the senior championship, becoming the first team since Carnacon to retain the Jimmy Corbett Perpetual Cup, although the latter was not without a scare.
“The first-half, in fairness to Knockmore, they were excellent,” Westport manager Pop Geraghty told the in relation to his side’s recent county final triumph. “Credit to them because they really had us stretched but I suppose we kind of felt, we knew we'd have time [to turn it around].”
The Covies were down 1-7 to 0-3 and as Geraghty mentioned, the Knockmore ladies were playing some superb football while Westport were well below par. So, did management need to lay out a few home truths?
“We didn't really say a lot to be honest,” said Geraghty. “There’s wasn't much needed to be said because we knew we hadn't done ourselves justice and we just had to make the choice to go out and try and be ourselves for 30 or 35 minutes. Thankfully the girls went out and they showed what they're about then and got the job done.
“It was very pleasing to see what we're capable of, but we won't get away with not playing in the first-half against Kilkerrin-Clonberne,” the manager warned.
Central to Westport’s comeback was the impact off the bench from the likes of Sherin EL Massry and Christina McEvilly, the latter getting the goal in the second-half to truly launch the fightback. But Geraghty is correct in believing it highly unlikely that Kilkerrin-Clonberne would be as forgiving should Westport find themselves seven points down this weekend.
Yet, as evidenced from their meeting in the Connacht final last year, Westport are more than capable of giving the multiple All-Ireland winners a fright. The Galway side went six points ahead early on but Westport saw three goal chances go amiss in the first-half, largely thanks to some inspired goalkeeping. A goal from Laura Moran in the second-half brought the gap to two, as well as Kilkerrin-Clonberne being reduced to fourteen players after Louise Ward’s yellow card. But the champions showed all their experience and game management to pick Westport off.
Reflecting on the final, Geraghty said: “I think the final scoreline (1-17 to 1-08) wasn’t reflective of the game. Kilkerrin probably deserved to win it on the day for sure, but we definitely weren’t happy with certain aspects of our performance.
“We had three goal chances in that first-half and didn't take them. The good thing is we know we can create them so that's what we'll be looking to do again.
“It's good knowing that we feel we're better conditioned this year than we were last year, so we feel we have that extra bit in us. We feel we have a stronger panel and bench this year as well that. Everyone has progressed and come on a bit and, you know, just that confidence of doing back-to-back as well, that's going to bring us in into a good position.
“We’re looking forward to getting another crack at them because certainly we felt there's more in us than even we showed last year.”
Pop Geraghty also believed Kilkerrin-Clonberne were not afraid to adopt a win-at-all-costs mentality either.
“They'll do anything to win; they don't mind mouthing on the field or anything, sledge and all that type of stuff, stuff that was kind of new to us. We certainly learned a lot from it and we'll be ready.”
While that game was played in Swinford Amenity Park, Westport will have home advantage for this one. With a fully-fit squad to choose from, the Westport manager knows his bench will be needed and also hopes that a big crowd will come to St Patrick’s Park to cheer them on to do something no one has done in Connacht since Carnacon in 2017: beat Kilkerrin-Clonberne.
“We're well used to playing on that pitch. I’m sure Kilkerrin will have scoped it out as well, but we're looking forward to having them on our own patch.
“[Our squad], that's what we feel is our biggest asset. We have a big squad and there's trust in every single one of them. You see a lot of teams only using a certain amount of players. We feel we've 27 players there and each one of them can do a job. It's great. Thankfully, it's given us lots of difficult decisions which is always a good sign.”
