By Ian Cooney at Donoughmore Ashbourne GAA
Brídíní Óga Glenravel (Antrim) 1-8
St Dominic’s (Roscommon) 1-5
THE future looks very different for the camogs of Brídíní Óga of Antrim this morning.
Molly Woulahan’s first-half goal and seven points from the stick of captain and talisman Torie Edgar earned the Glenravel club their second ever AIB All-Ireland junior club title on Saturday afternoon in Ashbourne, and it’s a victory that puts them in with some very elite company for the year ahead, most notably the reigning Ulster champions and recent All-Ireland finalists Loughgiel Shamrocks.
But as manager Chris Dornan pointed out in the aftermath of his side’s 1-8 to 1-5 win over St. Dominic’s (Roscommon), it’s a step up that his young group of players is ready to take.
“There’s not enough words I can say about the girls and their fire, grit, determination,” he said at the Meath venue, congratulating his side who backed up their win at the same grade in 2022.
“People say it’s junior but those girls trained 99 times and played 24 matches this year.
“There’s ten of the starting team that started three years ago, probably another five or six of the panel. But there’s four U16s in the panel there as well and I just hope they take it, we’re in the senior championship next year so we’ll celebrate this and then go out next year with a bit of verve.
“Up against the Loughgiels and the Cushendalls I’m not going to say we’re going to win anything, but we’ll give a good account of ourselves, there’s some good players in that outfit.”
Two frees from St Dominic’s captain Niamh Fitzgerald got the Rossies out to a good start into the breeze, but Brídíní Óga took over from there and were full value for their 1-6 to 0-2 interval advantage.
A goal in the 36th minute from another Fitzgerald free opened up the contest again but a stout defensive display ensured that even with the breeze at their backs, St. Dominic’s couldn’t get the scores they needed to reel in Dornan’s players.
“We told them, don’t look at any videos, it’s an All-Ireland final, no bad team gets to the final,” he said beaming.
“I said this will be tough, we have to stick at it and by God, I’m so happy that they kept going to the end.”
Two second half frees from Edgar into that incredibly sharp breeze made all the difference as it meant that Dominic’s had to chase in vain for a goal in the closing minutes.
“At the start of the year we had to beg Torie to go on to the frees because she wasn’t a freetaker. Our freetaker got injured and Torie had to go on them and on her day, from 60 to 70 yards out, it’s a score. It wasn’t easy against the wind but when we needed her to do it in the second half, she nailed them.
“She’s a nurse so can’t train all the time, she works in the emergency department with children, and to come out and put her heart into that and win it as captain, I’m so proud of her.”
Edgar herself was no less ecstatic afterwards, though she deflected much of the praise from her manager and elsewhere onto a collective team effort which saw them through a typical winter contest.
“My freetaking comes from everybody winning ball. It was really, really difficult in the conditions but thank God everybody put in a shift and that’s where all the frees came from,” Edgar said.
“The defence stood tall and they were absolutely phenomenal. With such a big wind, it was really, really hard to judge the ball, but all six backs and plus Orla (Donnelly) in nets did an absolutely brilliant job, with the midfielders going back to support as well.
“This performance, this All-Ireland is an absolute testament to the work that these girls have put in. The club have been behind us in every single game and the support that we’ve had today has been absolutely brilliant, so thank God we’ll go back up the road today, all the people from the club will be there and it’ll be another really special occasion for our club and our community.”
SCORERS FOR BRÍDÍNÍ ÓGA: T Edgar 0-7(6fs), M Woulahan 1-0, S Fyfe 0-1
SCORERS FOR ST DOMINIC’S: N Fitzgerald 1-3(fs); L Murray (f), K Egan 0-1 each
BRÍDÍNÍ ÓGA: O Donnelly, M Mulholland, J Woulahan, D Scally, E Coulter, B Laverty, E McCann, L Gillan, O Gould, S McDonnell, K Laverty, S Fyfe, A Traynor, T Edgar, M Woulahan
ST DOMINIC’S: E Cafferkey, SJ O’Connor, E McNally, M Rogers, H Murray, L Murray, A O’Connor, K Egan, C Dowling, N Watson, N Fitzgerald, L Mahon; A Campbell, Á O’Meara, C Kilcommons. Sub: M Lohan for O’Connor (39)
REFEREE: Simon Redmond (Dublin).
