Antrim attacking ace O’Neill eyes another return to Croke Park

By Daire Walsh

It won’t be her first outing with the county at GAA HQ, but Maria O’Neill has insisted it is still special to be lining out in the colours of Antrim in the TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship final at Croke Park on Sunday.

After featuring for the Saffrons in their All-Ireland JFC decider defeat to Wicklow at the Jones’ Road venue on September 5, 2021, O’Neill started at left-half forward and scored 1-1 when Antrim drew with Fermanagh at the closing stage of the same competition the following July.

She kept her spot in the first 15 when Antrim overcame their provincials rivals to claim the West County Hotel Cup at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh in the replay, but she and the Saffrons were back in Croke Park for another All-Ireland junior showpiece against Louth in 2025.

Despite contributing three points over the course of the action, O’Neill ended up on the wrong side of the result with her colleagues on that occasion. Yet Antrim have persevered during the current season and will return to Croker this weekend to take on Carlow in another third-tier final.

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“It’s not often it comes about. We were in it last year, obviously lost to Louth, and we’re back in it again this year. It’s hard to get back there and it’s not something you take for granted. You kind of just have to appreciate it when it comes around and hopefully not make the same mistakes we did last year,” O’Neill said.

Although this will be the first time the two teams will have faced each other in 2026, Antrim and Carlow have had a number of showdowns in competitive fixtures over recent times.

Back on August 2021, a 17-year-old O’Neill made her senior debut as the Saffron County squeezed past the Barrowsiders after extra-time in a titanic All-Ireland JFC semi-final battle in Dunleer. The two teams returned to the same venue in July of the following year as Antrim once again had the measure of Carlow in the last-four of the junior championship.

After a two-year stint in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship, the Saffrons were back in the third-tier by 2025 and enjoyed a commanding group stage win over Carlow at Netwatch Cullen Park.

Antrim also recorded a victory against their forthcoming opponents in Division 3 of the Lidl National Football League in 2023, though the two counties have since been in different tiers during the spring.

While Antrim have generally been able to negotiate the challenge of the Leinster outfit during her time in the set-up, O’Neill feels the Barrowsiders are a different proposition in 2026 – as evidenced by the fact that they are yet to taste defeat in the calendar year across all competitions.

“We played Carlow last year. They were a good team last year, but they’ve come on leaps and bounds. They’re a seriously athletic and skilful team. We’ve been obviously looking into them over the last week or so. Honestly, it could go either way. We’re preparing for a really, really tight game.

“They have some massive players like Cliodhna Ní Shé and their captain Roisin Bailey. They’re a serious outfit. Hopefully we won’t make the same mistakes we did last year, but we’re preparing for a really big battle.

“Because we were in their shoes last year with the unbeaten run and all the rest of it. They’re here to continue that run. They’ll try their best, but it’s our job to stop them.”

Maria O’Neill in action for Antrim in the 2022 drawn All-Ireland final

Although it is only 12 months since she featured for Antrim in the ground, O’Neill has enjoyed a more recent trip to GAA HQ. In what was an historic first for an Antrim side, St Ergnat’s, Moneyglass competed in an AIB All-Ireland senior club football championship final against Kilkerrin-Clonberne in Croke Park last December.

The Ulster champions ultimately came up short to their Galway counterparts on the day – who earned top honours in the competition for the fifth season running – but O’Neill still looks back on 2025 as the most memorable of her club career to date.

“We went straight from the county season in Croke Park straight into club season. We ended up back in Croke Park. To play in Croke Park twice in one year, it’s great. It was a great experience, even though we lost both times. You’d never get sick of it. It was really special, especially with your club.

“We’re quite a small club and to get there with girls that you’ve grown up playing with, it’s so special. I couldn’t see any other year of football ever comparing to the year we had with Moneyglass last year. It will never be beaten, unless we get back again, but it doesn’t come around easy or often. Some of the things, you just have to appreciate it at the time.”

Since subsequently returning to inter-county fare with a host of her Moneyglass team-mates, O’Neill has been in flying form with Antrim. In addition to a prolific campaign as Antrim reached the final of Lidl NFL Division 3, she currently leads the race for the LGFA’s ZuCar Golden Boot award with an astonishing tally of 11-16 in the All-Ireland series thus far.

This haul includes hat-tricks in each of her last three appearances against Longford, Kilkenny and Sligo, helping to keep her seven clear of second place Eimear Smyth – who will be togging out for Fermanagh against Roscommon in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship final in Croke Park on Sunday.

Yet despite acknowledging it would be a nice bonus to come away with this prize, O’Neill stressed that winning an All-Ireland junior title will be her main focus on Sunday.

“It would be a great achievement and it would be a great bonus, but the only thing I care about is lifting a cup in Croke Park. Getting out of junior and winning with my team-mates. Anything else is just a bonus. It’s one of those things, but at the minute it’s kind of just in the back of my head. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, oh well,” O’Neill added.