Ulster Ladies Senior Championship Final

Armagh v Donegal

Sunday, Clones, 3.45pm

By Shaun Casey

FOR the fifth year in a row, Armagh will contest the Ulster final and Kelly Mallon, captain of the 2020 and 2021 winning teams, will once again lead her side into battle.

Throughout those five years, Armagh have shared the decider with Donegal on four occasions and the record stands at two wins apiece.

The Tir Chonaill ladies were massive winners during their reign as Ulster kingpins in 2018 and ‘19, before Armagh claimed provincial glory in 2020, beating Monaghan in the final.

“It seems to be ourselves and Donegal are battling it out at the moment, I’m sure that will change in time,” said Mallon.

“It’s always an interesting contest, more recently, between the two sides. Donegal obviously gave us a few hammerings in a couple of Ulster finals and there’s a few of us still hanging about from those.

“They’re always in the back of our minds as well and we haven’t forgotten about those defeats either.”

Armagh suffered a league final loss to Kerry a number of weeks ago and while disappointed, the Orchard skipper hopes that experience will stand to the team.

“That was so disappointing for us, that was one of our biggest targets for the year and we obviously fell short of that.

“I do think it’s great to get the experience, so the panel are more familiar (with Croke Park) if we do happen to get back there later in the year.

“It is quite daunting and it’s pretty overwhelming when you step out on to the pitch with such a large stadium and a relatively big crowd there. I think to have that in the bank now is great for us going forward.

“I do feel we were probably the better team on the day. But Kerry took their opportunities, and their sub (Danielle O’Leary) made a huge impact and that’s what won it in the end.”

Armagh edged a closely fought affair against Donegal in last year’s showpiece by one point but Mallon believes the opposition have improved since then.

“They know us as much as we know them. They have a couple of new players into the panel, their panel seems to be a bit bigger with a wee bit more depth.

“I do think they’re a better team than last season. Their inside forward line is something that we’ll obviously have a hard time stopping with (Geraldine) McLaughlin, (Karen) Guthrie and (Yvonne) Bonner.

“Then you have Susanne White who had a good performance in the Cavan game.

“Niamh Hegarty is back in the mix as well and she had a strong performance against Cavan.

“They have a lot of threats going forward, Niamh McLaughlin is a brilliant captain. She’s the girl that pulls the strings. It’ll certainly be an interesting and entertaining game.”

Looking back at those hammerings to Donegal, Mallon suggests the development of the team along with the consistency of the management have helped change the fortunes of Armagh.

“The core group of players have developed as individuals and then collectively we’ve got better together.

“Obviously having the same management team in for three seasons has been something that I’m particularly happy about because if you look back at the last few years, we changed management nearly every year for a few years and that wasn’t really helping.

“Lorraine (McCaffrey) and Fionnuala (McAtamney) did a really good job with us for two seasons, and it would have been nice to have them on for another season maybe but it’s just how it worked out.

“I do think it was really just because we’ve developed as a group and the girls that were very young are more experienced now.”

If the Orchard come out on top on Sunday, Mallon will have captained the side to a historic three in a row, but the Armagh Harps player doesn’t feel any additional pressure.

“You have certain responsibilities as captain, but I don’t approach it any different than any other player really.

“I just try to keep everybody focused on the task ahead and try not to let the nerves get the better of them and then I just try to play the best I can on the day and lead by example as opposed to anything else.”