*JJ O’Dea. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
Should the Banner Ladies manage to capture the Clare ladies senior football championship title on Sunday, it will be a remarkable 15th title for five of their players and for manager J.J. O’Dea.
The Kilfenora native has steered the club to many successes over the years guiding the Ennis based club to the last of their senior wins in 2023 when the ladies football organisation celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Louise Henchy, Louise Woods, Emma O’Driscoll, Laurie Ryan and Niamh O’Dea have been ever present during his tenure.
Asked what keeps them doing this year after year he replied, “we wouldn’t be at it but for we like it. I like to see good open football and the new rules have led to that. They are not in the ladies game yet but they will have to come in. Ladies football is a fast game. The two pointers will have to be introduced to the ladies game as well as the rule forcing teams to keep three defenders back at all times. Currently a lot of good players are been prevented from playing because of the stacked defences”.
O’Dea continued, “we have a nice mix of youth and experience in the panel. We have a committed panel of players. Last year things didn’t go our way in the semi-final and we lost to Doora/Barefield in our own pitch which hurt. A few refereeing decisions didn’t go our way. When we met them this year we were well up for it. It was a local derby”.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s final, JJ said, “Kilmihil gave us a nice trimming in the opening round, they beat us by nine points. We re-grouped, looked at a few videos and got the girls going again. Burren Gaels nearly caught us. We played very well against Kilmurry Ibrickane, we made things happen”.
Kilmihil have a strong side, he flagged. “They have a few very good players such as Dervla Higgins. Eimear and Ailish Considine. Look the ball is in our court now to rectify that first round result. We had a nice team out that day but we hadn’t much done. Both sides were missing a few players on that occasion”.
The Banner will select from a full panel for Sunday’s final. “We trained on Saturday morning. We really can’t do much this week. We have a lot of players who have camogie commitments”.
Asked about the fact that the final is clashing with the senior hurling final in Cusack Park he said “it’s not right that these fixtures are clashing. There are a lot of neutral supporters who would like to see both finals but the clubs voted against having our final on Saturday. All finals should be played in Cusack Park”, he said.
