Knockmore prepare for the biggest challenge of all
Knockmore’s Caitlin Bourke breaks out of defence despite the close attention of Boyle’s Grace Flanagan during the AIB Connacht LGFA SFC semi-final at Abbey Park, Boyle, last Sunday. Picture: David Farrell Photography
To win when not playing well is always seen as the sign of a good team.
The newly-crowned Mayo champions Knockmore did not hit top gear by any means - and were under the cosh for much of the second half - but they found a way to win last Sunday to book their place in only their second ever Connacht final.
“Everything was thrown at us there bar the kitchen sink, so it was,” said Knockmore manager Frank Mulvihill. “But fair play to the Knockmore ladies. They dug it out.
“We gave everything to the cause, so we did. We worked our socks off, and where it matters, it's on the scoreboard, and we were lucky enough to come out by the slenderest of marriages, one point.
“When you don't play well, and we didn't play well, we have to be honest about it. It wasn't our best performance, but we still managed to stay in that game, we still managed to manage it out. We had some very good subs come on, helped us out. So, yeah, I'm delighted with the performance from that point of view.
“Lots of things we can improve on, lots of things we have to work on. But overall, our work rate and our determination and, I suppose, that grit that comes from being from Knockmore was evident there today.”
It was a game Knockmore certainly had to dig in. Lara Sweeney’s trio of frees were their only scores in the second half but a willingness to do the dirty work, epitomised by the likes of Sarah Mulvihill and Hannah Reape, saw the Saffron and Blue hold firm against a well-organised Boyle side.
“Scores were hard to come by out there today, so they were. Fair play to Boyle, they put it up to us, they were very dogged, they were very defensive, and they tackled hard.
“We didn't get scoring chances very easily, so we didn't. We had a few wides, a few misses, that didn't help our cause either, ones we probably should have put away. But yeah, the big players will always stand up for you on the day.
“I thought Shauna Howley Sarah Mulvihill, Roisin Flynn, you know, those players, Lara Sweeney, all will die with their boots on for you, that's what you need in your team,” said Frank Mulvihill.
Up next however is the biggest test for any club side in the ladies as they look to stop the five-in-a-row All-Ireland champions Kilkerrin/Clonberne. They have not lost a championship match since the 2019 All-Ireland final and have not been beaten in Connacht since November, where Carnacon defeated them in a Connacht final replay.
Knockmore have been one of the victims of the Galway juggernaut. They were beaten by 20 points in the 2021 semi-final and while they also lost the 2023 final, the winning margin was cut in half. Mulvihill admits it would be a ‘huge coup’ for Knockmore to defeat the ‘crème de la crème of ladies club football teams’ and acknowledges that they will have to be at their very best to do s but they only need to go back to 2021, when they ended the long reign of Carnacon as Mayo’s dominant force, to show that anything is possible.
“It'll be all on the day. We'll have to sit down, have look at them, see can we maybe find chinks in their armour and certainly on the day we will turn up, we will give a good account for ourselves and whatever comes, comes,” he concluded.
