The wait is over as the team from Kilkerrin/Clonberne top the pile

Mourneabbey 1-7

Darren Kelly in Birr

IT was worth the wait! Kilkerrin/Clonberne finally reached the summit of ladies football last Saturday as they were crowned All-Ireland senior champions for the first time ever.

After winning 15 major trophies since 2013, the biggest prize in the club game was secured in a display that marked the growing maturity of this young group of players.

One always felt they were good enough as they learned from defeats to Mayo’s Carnacon and this Mourneabbey team. And when their resolve was tested, Willie Ward’s charges had the answer.

Just take the final point for example. Leading by just three despite clearly being the better team, their leaders stepped up before giving one of their young stars the honour of bookending their most famous day.

Kilkerrin/Clonberne’s story over the last decade has been written by the Ward twins (Nicola and Louise) and Olivia Divilly. And they played their part on 56 minutes holding possession before Louise Ward’s cross field ball found Eva Noone on the right. The corner forward did the rest.

The director was none other than Annette Clarke. The All-Ireland winning Galway captain didn’t need to touch the ball. She conducted the move, pointing out the player in the best position, while their Cork opponents could only watch.

After Eva Noone, who also opened their account, put four between them, Kilkerrin/Clonberne proceeded to do what Cork sides usually do. They wouldn’t give the ball back, played down the clock and their supporters counted down the end to this team’s glorious year.

For the first time in 39 years, since Galway Gaels in 1982, a Galway club were All-Ireland senior champions. And 22 months on from the agonising one point loss to the same opposition in November 2019, it was a sweet way to reap the harvest.

Mourneabbey were chasing three consecutive All-Irelands, had scored 14 goals in their last three championship games, and had beaten Kilkerrin/Clonberne three times previously. But they finished with just one point from play in Saturday’s final.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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