By Shaun Casey

PLAYING the ladies and men’s Ulster finals as a double header in Clones is “huge” for the ladies game says Armagh star Blaithin Mackin as her side hope to retain their provincial crown.

The Orchard County will take on Donegal in both showpieces and both are a repeat of last season’s respective finals. Armagh triumphed in the ladies by the minimum of margins after extra time while Donegal claimed the Anglo Celt via a penalty shootout win.

Two more intense encounters are expected this weekend. On the ladies side of things, the two sides know each other extremely well at this stage having locked horns in the decider in the past four seasons.

Armagh have held the upper hand, winning four of the last five Ulster titles, but Donegal did upset the odds in 2023 and very nearly did the same last year, but a late Niamh Reel score sealed the deal for Armagh.

“It’s huge, especially in the ladies’ games, that’s what you want,” said Mackin of the double header. “You want numbers there and you want the support and with Armagh and Donegal playing after, it’s a perfect opportunity. Fair play to Ulster GAA and LGFA for organising it.

“Hopefully it’ll be a really good day for all Armagh and Donegal supporters. You have two really good games and two good showcases to put out on the day. I think the last few (ladies) finals have only been won by a point or two, nearly every one of them.

“So, you know how tough it’s going to be and you know what you’re coming up against, and having that familiarity can be good and bad. But we’ll prepare as best as we can, and we’ll look forward to it.”

Armagh have expected quite a successful spell in the last few years, not only in Ulster, but they’ve reached the last two Division One National League finals, winning last years, and losing the 2025 decider to Kerry.

Looking towards the All-Ireland series, where Armagh are top contenders for the ultimate prize, Mackin believes that winning the provincial crown will set the Orchard up nicely for a title at the All-Ireland title.

“Yeah, it’d be huge, I think probably that’s what we need,” continued Mackin, who’s brothers Connaire and Ciaran are part of Kieran McGeeney’s team. “We need a win after losing the league final and losing the last two league games as well.

“A win would be massive for us and there is no better time to do that. We’ll look at our performance first of all and hopefully on the back of that comes the win.”

In the league final, Armagh were disappointed not to retain their Division One crown, losing heavily to the Kingdom. Mackin hopes her side can learn from their last outing and carry that forward into the championship.

“I suppose you have to take the learnings from it,” continued the Shane O’Neill’s star. “Obviously we’re really disappointed and it wasn’t how we wanted it to turn out and against our own standards, we just weren’t at it in that sense.

“But we’ll learn from it and hopefully take the learnings and bring them into this championship. You have to look at different things you’ve done and how you could do better.

“It was a bad day at the office, as Darnell (Parkinson) rightly said, but there were definitely things that were in our control, which is something that we’ve looked at and hopefully will rectify.”

While the league didn’t end the way Armagh wanted, there were plenty of positives to take. Parkinson and Joe Feeney got to build the depth of their squad and lots of new faces saw game time and picked up some experience.

“I think that was the main thing, getting younger girls and newer girls into the panel, and getting them solid game time in Division One against the top teams. They played in really tight games, not just coming in to see a game out or whatever.

“They were really coming in to maybe change a game, which they did, so that was probably the main thing. The likes of Maeve Ferguson getting in the Team of the League, is a prime example of that.

“She is somebody who’s working really hard and a younger player who is putting her own stamp on the team and on that (corner back) position. So, that was the main thing from the league.

“We had some really good moments during the league, but it’s probably just then looking forward to turn that into a 60-minute performance.”