Tesco All-Ireland Minor B final
Sunday 4pm in Inniskeen
Antrim v Offaly
This Sunday will be a big day for the footballers who are in Croke Park to play Wicklow in the All-Ireland Junior final.
Saffrons supporters will have just about enough time to grab a bite to eat before rushing up the road to Inniskeen to support the minor camogie team who play Offaly in their All-Ireland final at 4pm.
Antrim struggled a little in last Sunday’s semi-final against Laois before blowing the midlanders away during the third quarter with a tally of three goals and five points, eventually recording a 3-19 to 3-12 victory.
The first goal came from Áine Magill who was a star of the county’s Intermediate All-Ireland semi-final win over Galway in Clones less than 24 hours earlier when she hit 1-4 to take them to Croke Park next week.
Áine will hope to have not one, but three medals before she heads to Croke Park as she is joined on the minor team by younger sisters, twins Bríd and Brónach. Brónach opened the scoring in the semi-final with a point and Bríd turned in a good performance at full-back despite her team conceding three goals and a host of frees.
That aspect of the minor’s game will need to improve against Offaly who had won their semi-final against Derry even before the referee had blown the half-time whistle.
Two goals each for the impressive Clodagh Leahy and full-forward Faye Mulrooney put Offaly 4-6 to 0-3 ahead at the break and Leahy in particular will be a huge threat to Antrim’s aspirations.
Her two goals came during the first four minutes against Derry and she orchestrated the performances from start to finish. There is a number of other players pretty useful around the place such as Denise Connor, Orla Phelan and the midfield pairing of Grace Leonard and Caoimhe Darcy, but negate the impact of Leahy and Antrim could well be on their way to bridging the gap their last title in 2018.
The results in minor this year have not been predictable.
Antrim struggled to defeat Derry 2-12 to 0-17 in the Ulster final in mid-July, yet a fortnight ago beat them by 19 points in an All-Ireland group game.
Offaly struggled with Laois in their group game but look to have improved significantly since that meeting at the end of July.
As well as the Magill twins on the starting team, Antrim have another set of twins in the McIntoshs at half-back and Faye will have the job of curtailing Leahy.
Team captain Orlagh Laverty is Áine Magill’s midfield partner while Fionnuala Kelly and Cassie McArthur have picked off the bulk of the scores up front with Creggan’s Evanne Martin also making an impact.
Antrim camogie is on a high at the moment and this team is capable of collecting the national title for the third time in five seasons.