Galwaymen helping Rosseis on the road to Croke Park

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

THIS Sunday, Cappataggle’s Noel Finn will return to Croke Park for All-Ireland camogie final day but not as manager of his native Galway, which he guided to three national titles between intermediate and junior, but as manager of a Roscommon side seeking its first ever All-Ireland Premier Junior crown.

Anyone involved in Galway GAA over the years will testify to the zest Finn has for hurling and camogie, although it has been the latter that has commanded a great deal of his attention as he led the Tribeswomen to the All-Ireland junior title in 2003 and to intermediate crowns in 2004 and ‘09.

Despite also coming close to also winning an All-Ireland senior title with Galway as team boss on a number been a happier man when Galway finally claimed the O’Duffy Cup two years ago.

He would equally be as pleased to see them lift it again this Sunday. “I was talking to Darren Kelly (Galway Bay FM) the other day and he was saying it was great to have two teams from Connacht going to Croke Park. And it is.

“The main thing is – and the important thing is – that the two teams win the All-Ireland. That there are two teams coming back to Connacht with cups. Having said that, from my point of view, we have to concentrate on our girls first at 12 o’clock and once our game is over we will be roaring on Galway.”

In that Premier Junior decider (12 noon), Roscommon face Laois, who, remarkably, are playing in their third consecutive final having lost the previous two outings to neighbours Kildare (2-11 to 1-5) and Down (1-12 to 1-8) in 2013 and ’14 respectively.

For Roscommon’s part, they have never won the Kay Mills Cup – formerly the New Ireland Cup – and it has been almost 20 years since they appeared in their last final. On that occasion, Cork defeated them at Croke Park 4-8 to 2-7, Mary Kennefick scoring a hat-trick for the Leesiders.

It was utter heartbreak for the Rossies as a year earlier they had lost out to Limerick on a scoreline of 6-5 to 2-7 – again, coming undone by a hat-trick tallied by Kay Burke. Since then, they have failed to reach another Premier decider, having dropped back a grade to Junior ‘A’ for a number of years in the interim.

During this time, they lost to Meath in the 2008 final of that competition – 0-10 to 1-6 – but did make amends a year later when accounting for Armagh by 1-7 to 0-7 after a replay to claim the Nancy Murray Cup. Six years on, many of the players are still involved, like Annette McGeeney and Kelly Hopkins.

Finn’s involvement, on the other hand, has just been since May, when he got a call to see if he would be interested in the job after the previous manager parted ways with the set-up following a poor National League campaign. Along with Tommy Larkins’ Noel Murphy, he met the officials in Ballinasloe.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.