Westport’s Sacred Heart ready for one last dance with All-Ireland glory

THE three most successful years of the Sacred Heart School football team may be about to culminate in their finest hour.

In truth, they had last year’s All-Ireland Senior ‘A’ final won until a 58th minute goal shattered their dreams.

This year things are different. Although they’ve lost Aoife Staunton, Laura Moran and Fionnuala McLaughlin from the forwards, the war-scarred Westport school still boast a wealth of talent from last year’s campaign.

These include ten starters from last year’s All-Ireland final, such as star forward Christina McEvilly (Westport), ex-Mayo Minor captain Beth Hoban (Carnacon) and long-time Mayo underage panellists Sarah Mulroy, Ellie Hyland, Ria Cafferky and Aoife Meaney (Westport).

Throw in Larissa Kelly (Westport), Grace McDonnell (Burrishoole), Aoife Meaney (Westport) and the rest of the best of their Connacht U-16 title winning team, and you have a force to be reckoned with.

Their opponents, Our Lady’s Secondary School of Castleblayney, are where Sacred Heart were a year or two ago.

Contesting their first-ever All-Ireland Senior ‘A’ final, the Monaghan ladies made their own history earlier this year when they halted Loreto College’s ‘Drive For Five’ when they usurped them to win their first Ulster Senior ‘A’ title.

They come into Wednesday’s final on the back of a 2-8 0-9 win over Skibbereen Community School and are led by Ulster All-Stars Laura Grimes, Hazel Hughes, Tara Renaghan, Niamh Flanagan.

Though heartbroken to have lost a game they deserved to win, the Sacred Heart girls are determined to use last year’s heartbreak to their advantage.

“Like last year, in our All-Ireland at half-time we were probably five…points up and by the end of it we’d lost that lead. This time, going in, we all know that we can’t stop until the final whistle is blown,” says Burrishoole forward Ava Palasz.

“They’re really into it and they are just more hungry than ever. They are working so hard and they are putting in so much extra effort,” Sacred Heart senior team manager John Coyle tells The Mayo News.

“I just feel there is a great belief amongst them, more than ever. There’s not as much in the way of nerves either. We saw nerves didn’t do us any good last year and we were just prepared to go out and give it our all on the day. Hopefully that will do it.”

Burrishoole half-back Ava Kelly says that getting back to the All-Ireland final was always on their mind.

“We didn’t want to be ahead of ourselves thinking about getting to another All-Ireland but now that we are here [we think] that we have a good enough team to do it,” says Kelly. 

FIXTURE 

LIDL ALL IRELAND PPS SENIOR A FINAL

Sacred Heart, Westport v Our Lady's Castleblayney

Wednesday, March 20 at 1pm

St Rynagh's GAA Club, Offaly