Ladies teams express frustration at Ulster club

LADIES football team clubs across Ulster have expressed their frustration at the decision to halt the Ulster Club Championship.

The competition was due to continue this weekend with a string of matches due to have been played at senior, intermediate and junior level.

Carrickmore were due to play Steelstown this weekend, but that game was called off.

Conor McAleer is involved with the team, and he said that the club have decided to adopt a be-prepared approach.

“The club’s policy is that all teams are continuing to train until we are told to stop. We are following all the guidelines. It is being monitored on a daily basis.

“You would have liked the competition to be played but no one wants anyone’s health to be in jeopardy.”

The GAA decided this week to halt all competitive club action.

“They maybe thought that the government would have went to level five and that would have meant that training and everything would have stopped but they didn’t.

“Dublin is at level three and they played their championship final with restricted supporters.

“The way our girls are looking at it is a glass half full. They didn’t think that they were going to get any football this year but they did, and they were successful.

“They got relegated from division one last year. But the girls made no excuses and the girls did the hard work. It was important that they got out of Intermediate football.”

The Kinawley ladies footballers were due to play Drumlane in the Intermediate championship this weekend. Kinawley were beaten in last year’s Ulster final and had hopes of getting back to a decider this year.

Kevin Gilleece is on the management team.

“We have got to the final twice and we were beat twice. We have some new players this year. We wanted to give it a good run this year.”

He added: “It is frustrating. They said it would be reviewed on the 12th, then it was fixed for the 11th. They keep changing it but where does it end?”

The Kinawley ladies are not training this week. They have a contingent of county players who will be working with that squad. They also have players who are at college. The issue for them is the unknown.

Gilleece said: “They are asking me what is the story and I am saying ‘I can’t give you an answer’.

“There is nothing to see that there is anything going ahead. If we knew it was going to happen we could continue training. But we don’t know.”

However, Gilleece said that players are being careful.

“There are cases popping up. And players are worried.”

In Donegal, Glenfin were the senior county champions and were delighted to come out of what is such a tough competition.

Their Ulster club game was against Lacken. The Cavan champions took a big scalp in St Macartans.

But at the moment, Glenfin won’t get a chance to take on Lacken.

Paul Bonner is part of the Glenfin management and he said: “It is unfortunate the way it ended up.

“Everyone thought that St Macartans were coming through, so it was some victory for Lacken. That shows you that you don’t take anyone lightly.

“The girls were preparing well. It was maybe easier to prepare because of covid, because they were focused.2

However, he did say that winning the Donegal championship was all they had cared about this year.

“When you are involved in the Donegal championship the standard is so high. We couldn’t look at Ulster, we couldn’t take our eye of Donegal or we would have been caught out.

“It was a big deal that we won this year. They are not easy got.”