IT SLIPPED SOMEWHAT under the radar at national level, but there was a huge story in ladies club football last weekend.
The 21 in-a-row senior champions in Monaghan were dethroned.
Donaghamoyne saw their remarkable winning run ended by Magheracloone at the semi-final stage. Magheracloone triumphed on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-4 and will now contest their first senior county final since 2002.
That, indeed, was when Donaghmoyne’s reign began.
Having also won 14 Ulster titles and five All-Irelands in that period, Donaghmoyne’s dominance has been striking, but now they must watch from afar as new county senior champions are crowned.
Magheracloone last reigned supreme in 1997, and they face long-time runners-up Emyvale in the decider at St Tiernach’s Park, Clones, next Sunday.
“To be in a Monaghan senior championship final is just brilliant for the club,” Magheracloone defender Ciara McDermott tells The 42.
“It’s been a long time since we have been in one, and for a lot of us, this is our first senior final. Growing up playing club football in Monaghan, getting to a county final is something I haven’t even dreamed about, because Donaghmoyne have been so dominant, and rightly so.
“They’re a fantastic team, they’re always a team I’ve looked up to with all they’ve accomplished in Ulster and All-Irelands. They won the Monaghan championship even before I started playing football.”
That’s the case for the majority of the Magheracloone team, with memories of ’02 sparse or non-existent for most.
A handful of those involved are coming full circle, though: Christina O’Reilly and Lorraine Freeman are still playing over two decades on, while management trio Niamh Kindlon, Fiona Kindlon and Susan McCahey were their team-mates in those fruitful years.
It hasn’t been a straightforward few years for Magheracloone, on or off the pitch. A sinkhole destroyed their facilities in 2018, while the ladies team have seesawed between senior and intermediate.
Reaching the 2024 county final was “not something we foresaw coming,” McDermott admits.
“It’s actually been quite a tough year for us. It wasn’t going well. We were relegated in the league and we’ll be playing Division 2 football next year. We lost our first championship match, but somehow we managed to regroup and ended up topping our group on points difference.”
This turnaround earned them a home semi-final, but pitted them against Donaghmoyne. Magheracloone’s latest beating to their familiar foes came just last month, with 18 points the deficit in their final league game.
As always, they knew the height of the challenge that lay ahead, but there was hope.
“There definitely was a feeling that we could beat them,” McDermott, who has played senior inter-county football for Monaghan and won an O’Connor Cup with UCD in 2016, says.
“We knew deep down that if we played well, it would be close. It wasn’t about, ‘If we win, then we’re in a county final.’ The final wasn’t even a thought.
“We went into the match with no expectations or no pressure on ourselves to win. I mean when you’re going up against the reigning 21 in-a-row champions, you’ve nothing to lose. We just wanted to perform — and that we did.
“The girls played unbelievable, I was so proud of them. I was lost for words at the end of the game, but I think that was mostly with relief that we actually had gone and won.”
The scenes at the final whistle said it all, and that excitement hasn’t let up since. The flags and bunting are up for next Sunday’s final, and it’s the main topic of conversation around the parish.
Standing in Magheracloone’s way is another heavyweight in Emyvale. The records aren’t widely available but it’s believed they have lost 18 finals to Donaghmoyne.
“As long as Donaghmoyne have been so dominant the last 21 years, Emyvale have been the second best team in Monaghan,” McDermott concludes. “They’ve been in the majority of the finals, they’ve both set the standards so high.
“They’re hungry for it and we know they are. They will see this as a massive opportunity to win, and we know that too.
“County finals don’t come around too often. I’m sure there’s plenty of clubs in Monaghan now looking at us thinking, ‘If they can get that far, so can we.’”
