McIntosh hoping to finish the job

By Niall Gartland

THERE’S a clever-sounding saying that the hand that wields the knife shall never wear the crown. It sounds good anyway – and hey, sometimes there’s more than a ring of truth to cliches.

Take the Donegal footballers back in 2014. They successfully plotted the downfall of a Dublin team pegged as nigh-on unstoppable but fell short on the big day against Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s Kerry. By their own admission they just didn’t perform.

Of course, there are many other examples to the contrary, but it’s still fair to say that Moneyglass need to be on their guard ahead of Sunday’s Ulster Senior Championship showdown against Errigal Ciaran.

The Antrim side produced a stunning upset in the semi-final against a Clann Éireann side two games away from clinching their third successive Ulster final, but it’s unlikely that complacency will be a factor against surprise packets Errigal. Maria Canavan, Meabh Corrigan, Aoife Horisk, Claire Canavan and Michaela Moore were all part of the Tyrone team that won this year’s All-Ireland Intermediate title, so they’re hardly going to quiver in their boots at the thought of a provincial final.

That’s something Moneyglass captain Niamh McIntosh is certainly mindful of ahead of Sunday’s big game.

“In terms of club football, Errigal Ciaran are very new to us – we’ve never played them in the Ulster Club Championship, but I’ve played against the likes of Aoife, Maria and Claire on the county scene, and in friendlies as well.

“Tyrone were immense in the All-Ireland Intermediate final and the girls playing for Errigal were a massive part of that. It’s going to be a really big task and they’ll definitely be as hungry as we are.”

Moneyglass have been here before. Three years ago they produced a commendable performance against a vastly-experienced Donaghmoyne side before falling short in more recent times against Clann Éireann. They struck gold against the Armagh side in a recent semi-final and McIntosh is hoping that the experience of facing the best in the business will stand to them when it comes to the crunch.

“We were still quite green to the whole provincial scene at that stage. We’d won only our second title in Antrim and were coming up against a really big name in Donaghmoyne.

“I don’t think we performed badly but there was definitely a lot to take away and learn from that game, about what it takes to compete at that level.

“It’s nice to be back in the final and we feel we’ve learnt a lot of the last number of years and we’ll give it our best and see what happens.”

Moneyglass have been the dominant force in Antrim ladies football for the last half-decade at both senior and minor level.

Both teams completed the five in-a-row this season, a remarkable achievement, and the senior side has been bolstered by the introduction of promising younger players.

“We’ve a good bit of variety in the team when it comes to age, but we did bring through a lot of young players last year. I think that year playing senior football has made a big difference, and they were some of our best performers against Clann Éireann.”

Then there’s the stalwarts – McIntosh herself, Bronagh Devlin, who captained Antrim this year, and the irrepressible Cathy Carey among others. It takes everyone pushing in the one direction to make a winning team.

“I think you do have that mix. When you’re new to the team, you have that real hunger, but the experienced ones know what it takes and hopefully bring that bit of composure.

“Cathy is someone we all look up to, and Bronagh has really come into her own as county captain.

“Her sister Áine is in nets, and Maria O’Neill has been performing amazingly which is great to see. I think being part of a county set-up has really helped a lot of girls this year.”

So is Moneyglass’s name on the cup? That win over Clann Éireann can’t be glossed over, and while anything can happen in finals, there’s no doubt that they’re imbued with a sense of belief that can’t be faked.

“We had a really good feeling going into the Clann Éireann game. We felt like our quarter-final performance against Bredagh was really strong. We felt we had nothing to lose against Clann Éireann and we might as well give it everything we’ve got.

“I think the two goals in the first half from Leah Stewart and Bronagh Devlin came at a really important time, and that was a big turning point for us.

“In previous years we’d found ourselves behind against Clann Éireann, whereas this time we were ahead at half time and that gave us a lot of confidence in our ability to push on and see it out.”