TG4 All-Ireland Ladies’ IFC final
Leitrim v Tyrone (Tomorrow, Croke Park, 1.45pm, live on TG4)
IT looked like the wheels might have come off Tyrone when they fell to a third successive defeat back in June. They had just given up a nine-point lead that led to a one point loss to Leitrim in the opening group game of the All-Ireland intermediate championship.
An unbelievable league campaign saw them go through all seven rounds unbeaten, to finish second and qualify for a league final against Kildare and get automatic promotion back to Division One for next season. However, they subsequently lost that Division Two final in April.
They then bowed out of theUlster championship in May with a semi-final exit to Monaghan after starting as hot favourites for the provincial title. That left all the focus on the All-Ireland competition – and just as they looked to be returning to winning ways against Leitrim, the Connacht side stunned the Red Hands and suddenly Tyrone had their backs to the wall with no room at all for any more defeats.
Three games later and Tyrone will contest tomorrow’s All-Ireland intermediate final, ironically with Leitrim, in a triple-header at Croke Park.
The more difficult road had to be navigated – a quarter-final against last year’s finalists Clare and then a semi-final against Ulster champions Down, both among thechampionship favourites.
It was not ideal says Barry Grimes, who is an integral part of manager Sean O’Kane’s team, but hopefully it will stand to them as they get another chance at Leitrim – and this one when it really counts.
“If it turns out that we win the All-Ireland, I will take losing the league final and those two hits to Monaghan and Leitrim,” said Grimes.
“We knew we were already promoted before the league final, this time it’s do-or-die. Leitrim will be coming in with as muchdetermination as we’re going in with and we both want that prize at the end of the day.
“Leaving Ballinamore that dayafter losing to Leitrim was very, very sore. I suppose we went there with an expectation that we were going to win that match and it didn’tmaterialise.
And full credit to Leitrim, they deserved the victory on the day. It means that we’re really, really focussed now; there’s an All-Ireland title to win and we know we’re going to play a team who’ve already beaten us this year. That gives you an extra added incentive and gives you an extra added focus as well which we hope to use to our advantage.”
Grimes feels the team hit a lull after the euphoria of promotion back to the top table of league football and reaching a league final in Croke Park.
“I think there was a bit of a hangover from the league final,” he said.
“We paid the price against Monaghan, they were extremely well set up. We were a wee bit technically and tactically naive that day, we played into their hands.
“The Leitrim game, while we performed quite well in the first half, early in the second half, we were nine points in front.
“Everything was going very, very well then we had 10 minutes of chaos which gave Leitrim the lead, and full credit to them for sticking at it.Leaving Ballinamore that day, to lose our first game in the All-Ireland series was a very, very big wake-up call.
“We can really focus on setting the record straight from our point of view against Leitrim – they’ve one up on us, and we want to make sure they don’t get two up on us.”
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