AS Kinawley ladies prepare for an All Ireland semi final this Sunday, the significance of it is not lost on their captain Joanne Doonan. She’s been there with the Boru’s, knocking on the door of Ulster for quite some time and finally, on November 13 they burst through the door, beating Derry champions Steelstown in a close fought final.
It’s unknown territory for the Boru’s but 27 year old Doonan is ready for the challenge that Dublin outfit St Sylvester’s will present after the Leinster ladies cruised through their quarter final meeting with London side Holloway Gaels a fortnight ago, beating them 2-12 to 0-5 to set up a semi final meeting with Kinawley.
“Watching them, Holloway have such a mixture of girls from all over, so it’s hard to judge the standard of team they are” said Doonan. “They (Holloway) still had a lot of possession against them, we’re not going down here to make superstars of the Dublin county players,” states Doonan.
Dublin captain Sinead Aherne and Nicole Owens bagged 2-07 of their 2-12 total against Holloway, so they will take some watching on Sunday. The absence of Erin Murphy in defence is a big blow to Kinawley but her sister Courteney Murphy and Katie Donnelly will be likely handed the job of marshalling these two key players.
St Sylvester’s also have Dublin county stars Kate Sullivan and Niamh McEvoy in their armour but Doonan is not fazed by this.
“We’re going down thinking we have every opportunity to win, we can’t wait until half time and come in and be like, we actually can win this. It’s still a level playing field, yes, they have four or five Dublin county players but there’s 15 girls on the field the whole time, there’s five subs to be used, so it’s a matter of, can our girls up it everywhere else on the field too?
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