Knockbride Ladies are continuing their march after historic 2025 season

By Niall Gartland

KNOCKBRIDE ladies are riding the crest of a wave – and that’s putting it mildly.

They won a magnificent treble of Intermediate titles at county, provincial and national level in the 2025 season, and now they’ve followed that up with the Cavan Senior Championship title, producing a memorable upset a few weeks ago against a vaunted Lurgan side.

Knockbride are under new management this year, with Crosserlough man Paul Cahill overseeing matters on the sideline, and they get their provincial campaign underway against Steelstown this Sunday. Given all they’ve achieved in such a short period of time, they’ll be quietly confident of making their mark in the competition. Taking us through their 2026 season to date, Cahill said: “We were keen not to dwell too much on what happened last year and drive forward.

“A couple of players were away with the county at the beginning of the year, but we picked up a few wins and we got to the league semi-final. That went to a replay and we were beaten by the eventual winners. It set us nicely up for the championship, and we took it game by game and ended up getting to the final and winning it, so we can’t complain!”

Cahill says the influx of younger players has been crucial to their meteoric rise. They’re not lacking in experience either, though.

“Yeah, there’s a good mix, to be fair. We’ve good experience up the middle channels and dotted around the edges, and a couple of county players. Katie Mai Reilly is in county senior for the first year, we’ve two county minors, Gia McCabe and Abbie Reilly, and two U16 girls coming into the fold as well. There’s good talent there, and it takes the pressure off the cohort of senior girls.”

Derry City-based opponents Steelstown have cemented themselves as the leading force in their county, and they also have experience of doing well in Ulster, winning the Intermediate Championship in 2023. Like Knockbride, they’ll be hoping to push on at the very highest level.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know much about them. We’re trying to get a bit of background on them, but they’re holding their cards close to their chest. They have been around, I know they played Lurgan in the first round, and they’ll bring a lot of experience with them as well, a lot of wins under their belts.

“They’ll be gunning for us and seeing us as a target to possibly get a win from as well, so it should lead to an interesting game now.”

Cahill also expressed his admiration for Knockbride as a club. Nothing is left to chance and there’s no hierarchy between the men’s and women’s teams.

“They do everything right. The men are very supportive of the women’s side of it, and they all work hand in hand. There’s no airs or graces, it’s all shoulders to the wheel. The underage teams are all trying to push on together and trying to push the youth up, so it’s good to see. It’s what you like to see around the rural clubs especially.”