Loughgiel v St. Finbarr’s All Ireland Senior Club Championship semi final, Donaghmore, Ashbourne for 2pm – Preview and photos from Michael Corcoran
After last weekend’s camogie provincial action, we now know St. Finbarr’s will play Loughgiel in one of the semi finals to be played in Donaghmore, Ashbourne at 2pm. The other semi final will be between Dicksboro and Athenry in Kinnegad for 1pm.
St. Finbarr’s from Cork defeated De la Salle from Waterford in the Munster provincial championship by the narrow margin of two points, that lead coming from a late Kate Wall goal to seal the deal for St. Finbarr’s first provincial crown. The DLS featured All Star collector, Beth Carton. You might remember Carton from her attendance at Loughgiel during the summer of ’24, when Waterford played Antrim in the Glen Dimplex All Ireland Senior Championship preliminary round. You can read the archived report for that Antrim game here…
Carton and Co were unable to stop the Barr despite a gruelling top class display of camogie. So, what do we know about St. Finbarr’s? They have three Cork county faces on the current club panel, namely Méabh Cahalane, sister Orlaith and Sorcha McCartan. Orlaith Cahalane scored the Barr’s opening goal from a dropping free from team mate, McCartan. With a mixture of skill, intelligence and a dollup of luck, the right full forward backward flipped the sliotar over her head and into the roof of the DLS net. The Barr’s Kate Wall proved to be a ‘jinky’ player with sure footing that got through the DLS defence with only minutes to spare in the game and sealed the deal with a short range rocket to the back of the net. That was goal, game and championship.
The Shamrocks will relish the challenge ahead of them with the advantage of semi final experiences under their belt, given that this is the Barr’s first All Ireland semi final, but they’ll need to iron out a few wrinkles they know about in order to reduce the risk of those being exploited by the Munster champions.
Other parameters to factor into the game are the weather and pitch. At the moment, forecasts vary between the possibility of light rain and a gentle breeze to sunshine and calm. In between either of those, neither team will complain considering the time of year.
Loughgiel are no strangers to Donaghmore, having lost to the 2023 All Ireland champions, Dicksboro, on a tight winter turf. Loughgiel were strong in the first half 1-08 to 0-06 but Dicksboro came back in the second half to make the most of the conditions and went on to become 2023 All Ireland winners. You can read more on that 2023 game here…
In the end, it’ll come down to work rate, driven by training and hunger, but if Loughgiel can raise their bar of excellence one more time, the travelling supporters might have cause to spill into the Pound Bar on the way home. This will surely be a battle, Ulster v Munster. Where else would you want to be on Saturday?
Get your tickets for Saturday’s game here…
And if you can’t make the game…
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Semi Final – Loughgiel Shamrocks v St. Finbarr’s
