West Mayo rivals in showdown for promotion
Louisburgh captain Aine O'Reilly and her Castlebar counterpart Grainne Flynn.
One team is looking to make the breakthrough after several misses while another is looking to make the step back to senior.
The intermediate final meeting of Castlebar Mitchels and Louisburgh promises to be a fascinating encounter. Mitchels disposed of the Black and Amber comfortably in the 2021 final, 2-20 to 1-5, as a magical journey began to Connacht success before falling short in the All-Ireland final. Gráinne Flynn, now club captain, was there for all three finals on that adventure and feels the side has come on further since.
“Yeah, it was a great year we had two years ago but it was probably that we just enjoyed the whole experience. I think it's upped another level again with strength and conditioning and all that. I think we're at another level compared to where we were two years ago.”
While relegated from senior last year, that experience in the top flight has stood to them. They won all three group games, including a victory over last year’s All-Ireland junior finalists Claremorris, before defeating Moy Davitts in the semi-final.
“Every game we've had this year we've had different encounters. The games are getting closer and that's what you want. It's championship football and that's the way a game should be.
“I think everyone has pushed each other to the limits. I think each game we're getting stronger and stronger and different things are clicking so we're at a good place.” Mitchels are under the joint-management of Rodney Clarke and Russell Gibbons, two proud club men who were in charge of Mitchels’ men’s ‘B’ team that won the junior ‘A’ title in 2019. Gráinne says the duo have added a professionalism to the team.
“They brought a lot. It's a very professional setup. We have S&C, like there's just everything you want. Everyone's kind of pushing each other and we're getting what the men have. We're getting a bit more of that as well, which is great.”
Louisburgh have been a consistent presence in the intermediate tier and are as close as anyone to taking that next step. A heavy defeat to Mitchels in 2021 showed the step up required and they look poised to go one better a year later but a Deirdre Doherty-inspired Charlestown broke their hearts in Bekan.
Now in a third final in four years, they are as hungry as ever to go up to senior.
“I suppose we have a good fire in our belly for it this year,” said club captain Áine O’Malley. “We have a very good team come up. We have a big challenge ahead of us with Castlebar, they are unbeaten so far so we are looking forward to the challenge of it and I think we will bring the fire and drive to it.
“We’ve done a lot of work the last two years in improving ourselves. I'm the oldest on the team so we have quite a young team so we're kind of building on that and hopefully we deliver now.
“It has been (tough) because we've been playing without our full squad for a couple of weeks now due to a lot of injuries. We've gone on to win our matches which has been great without our full team. It has given the girls good confidence you know, using the younger players as well has been great.”
The Needham trio of Ciara, Tara and Elaine are among the club’s stars but there’s a host of young talent coming through to ease the burden of injuries given the week-to-week nature of the championship. Áine hopes much of the injury list eases as they prepare for a tough encounter with Mitchels.
“It's really pushed on. We've excellent young players coming all the way up through the age groups so we're kind of honing in on them at the moment, training them into the team. There's huge potential coming up so it's great to see it.
“We're hoping we'll have a full squad all going well. It’ll depend on the next week, how everyone's feeling. It is very tough playing week on week. You have girls playing college football and everything on top of that. Then your younger players are playing underage games as well so it is a lot of sport for girls so it's kind of minding each other now for the next two weeks.”
