Sarah’s on a back-to-back mission

When Sarah Mulvihill was done playing under-14 football for Knockmore, she moved straight to training with the senior team. Not that she was unique; it was the case for every girl in the club back then. Knockmore was not the senior powerhouse it is today and scratching around the junior ranks of Mayo ladies football meant that under-16s, minors and adults all trained together. Now, however, the club is bidding to win its third county senior championship in four years.

It's a far cry from losing the 2018 final to Carnacon by 33 points.

Three years later Knockmore were beating the same team by 12 points to win their first Mayo LGFA senior championship, a day Sarah Mulvihill readily admits as “easily one of the best” in her life.

“It’s still surreal to think that we were the ones to beat Carnacon after their 21-year spell. It was a serious achievement.

“I don’t think they saw it coming on the day.

“I suppose I was getting to the age of 26, 27 and probably thinking that we were never going to get over the line. But we were just lucky that an influx of players came through the previous year and we just worked really, really hard.” 

To give an indication on just how significant was that youthful input to Knockmore’s breakthrough, of the starting 15 who denied Carnacon a 22nd consecutive title, seven of the players weren’t even born the last time any team other than Carnacon were crowned champions.

“I think by us breaking through, that gave other teams like Burrishoole and Westport that bit of hope as well,” adds Mulvihill, a teacher at nearby Currabaggan National School. Burrishoole dethroned Knockmore in 2022 while Westport have now reached back-to-back finals, losing narrowly to Knockmore in 2023.

“There was a lot of hopelessness going into finals against Carnacon. Moy Davitts tried for a while too but you were just going in knowing that you were going to be beaten. I know that sounds negative but they weren’t All-Ireland champions for no reason.

“So I think us breaking through in ’21 did give a lot of teams that sense of possibility, that ‘we can do this’. And it has driven the standard in Mayo way, way up. I know we are [in the final] four years in a row, but we have battled every single game. No game has been a walkover or easy by any means. And I don’t think there ever will be an easy game again in the ladies senior championship. There’s no weak team; there’s eight senior teams and every one of them deserves to be there and every game is a huge battle, which wasn’t the case over the years. Every club seems to have rallied round and upped their level.” 

Sarah’s dad, Frank Mulvihill, a former Moclair Cup winning captain with Knockmore, was in charge of the ladies as they began their ascent through the tiers of Mayo football. Assisted by Denis Lacken, they also had great support from Ann Clarke – the club’s first female chairperson. The arrival of Cormac Reape as manager was the missing link and despite quite a high turnover of players, Knockmore remain team to beat, as evidenced by their 2-9 to 1-7 semi-final victory over Carnacon.

“We’d be looking and hoping to do back-to-back, it was our goal at the start of the year to get back here,” admits Mulvihill, who made her Mayo senior debut back in 2016.

“If you were to look back to our first win in ’21, there are at least 10 or 12 players gone from that squad. We’ve held onto the bones of the team but there’s constantly players coming and going with different events in life; some go travelling or their priorities change. Emma Lowther is gone from us this year, married and has a baby. But we’re delighted to be where we are again.” 

Knockmore and Westport have yet to meet in 2024 due to being on opposite sides of the league and championship draws but did face off in two fascinating matches last year.

In what was described as one of the greatest games of club football ever, Knockmore overcame the Coveys after extra-time in the Division 1 final while there was only two points (2-8 to 0-12) dividing them when meeting again in the senior championship final.

“They’re just as good as last year so we know what’s coming. We know that they will bring everything. They’re a super team with fantastic players, lots of county players, so they have huge talent there and we just have to be as prepared as we can be,” Mulvihill explains, refusing to be drawn on the possibility of another crack at Kilkerrin-Clonbern in this year’s Connacht championship.

Knockmore lost last year’s provincial final to the Galway side who after winning Connacht for a sixth year in succession, went on to win their third straight All-Ireland senior crown.

“There’s no point in looking anyways in that direction. We always say ‘one more game, one more game’. We always look to the next game regardless of who it is. We would never set our eyes on [Kilkerrin-Clonbern] until you get over the line, because getting out of Mayo is the hardest part. We’ve seen that for how many years? There’s four or five teams constantly fighting for that spot. And if you’re lucky enough to get over the line, like we have been, we’ll switch our focus then.”