*Abi Kelly in action for St Joseph’s Spanish Point. Photograph: Ray McManus / Sportsfile
REACHING A first All-Ireland PPS A final in twenty nine years has set a standard that St Joseph’s Spanish Point are eager to live up to.
On Thursday, Spanish Point fell short at the final hurdle losing to the physically imposing and dominant Our Lady and St. Patrick’s College, Knock.
Four goals in twenty minutes saw the Ulster champions exert their dominance on proceedings.
Principal of St Joseph’s Spanish Point and manager of the ladies football side, Paul Reidy pointed to the difference in physicality as a big factor in the outcome. “We’re very disappointed but we can’t have any complaints really as they were much more physically stronger than us. Knock are an outstanding team and their superior physicality had a huge bearing on the result as we had to work ten times harder to get a score than they did and our younger players found it harder going today than they might have done all year”.
He told The Clare Echo, “We’d only three Leaving Certs starting and another came on as a sub so this is a very young side that have come a long way. So we’re just exceptionally proud of the girls and no-one can take away the achievement of getting here. They’ve won a three-in-a-row of county and Munster senior titles so this has been an incredible few years for the school”.
Goals from Isa McCarron and player of the game Evie McHugh just before half time were costly, Reidy acknowledged. “The two goals we conceded just before half-time were hammerblows. They came from two kick-outs that went wrong and we were all out of position. We had been doing fine up to that as that early Ellie Hanrahan goal helped us settle into the game but once they [Our Lady and St, Patrick’s College] got going, we found it physically hard to stop them powering through us and I thought their midfielders especially were very dominant”.
Youth had been a strength for Spanish Point until it wasn’t when the greater physicality of their All-Ireland final opponents on Thursday. “We just didn’t have the answers to their physicality really, they were able to blow us off the ball but we have an exceptionally young side and that can be forgotten at times. While we had been saying all year it was some achievement because of them being so young, it did probably hurt a bit today to have five girls at only 14 or 15 years of age in an Under 20 final. And they were brilliant today, some of them were our best players but just in terms of physicality, every breaking ball or 50/50 ball, they were just able to get in and wheel us out of the way.
“We just came up against a better team and we just have to take that on the chin. We’re exceptionally proud of each and every one of our players and we hope to bounce back again next year. We’ve set a standard now that we’ve to try and live up to again next year,” the Kilmihil native added.
Catherine McGourty, manager of the victorious Our Lady and St. Patrick’s College side said, “This is a dream come true for our school. I’m so proud of these girls, they’re such a special group of 22 girls who have worked so hard the whole year. They throw their all into every game and training so to become the best school in Ireland is just unbelievable.
“I’m a past pupil of the school and I always said to my teachers when I was there that I wanted to win an All-Ireland with the school. At the time, there was only netball there so to come back as a teacher and be involved with such a special group like this is amazing. To be the best team in Ireland and probably today control a lot of the game is beyond our wildest dreams really. We did have a slow start but once Isa [McCarron] and the middle third started to press their kick-out, the goals quickly came and from there we’re so hard to beat”.
She admitted, “We didn’t know too much about Spanish Point but we had a lot of faith in ourselves and we knew that if we came out here in the final and performed that it would take a really, really strong team to beat us”.
