By Shaun Casey

LAST year, this was all new territory for Granemore and new territory for their manager Connor Devlin. But fast forward 12 months and the club are still making history, but they have a bit of experience to call on this time around.

For the second season running, Granemore head into the Junior ‘A’ All-Ireland final and the club are basking in that success. This year, they enter the game as reigning champions, which adds a different dimension to the build-up.

The Granemore girls have collected three Armagh titles in a row, two Ulster’s and this weekend are hoping to add a second All-Ireland title to their cramped trophy cabinet. But their focus is a performance on the day, rather than the silverware that is up for grabs.

“It is a dream to be honest,” said former Armagh hurler Devlin. “The community is on a high at the minute and everybody seems to be getting behind the team. The whole community is buzzing for Ashbourne this weekend and there’s a great feeling around the club.

“There has been that great feeling, not just this year, but over the last number of years.

“We’ve been very lucky in that we have done three in-a-row (in Armagh), the second in the club’s history.

“We followed that up with back-to-back Ulster titles, and now the second All-Ireland final. We’re very aware of the task that’s ahead of us and focused on the game more so than anything else.

“You can draw on those experiences whenever you’re preparing for the final, and while this is a familiar foe in Knockananna. We played them last year in the All-Ireland semi-final, the other fixtures that we had were all new to us.”

Granemore booked their spot in the All-Ireland semi-final with convincing 2-9 to 1-3 victory over Oran with renowned attacking player Rachael Merry contributing 1-6 on the day.

“We played Oran (in the semi-final), it was difficult trying to get any information on them because Connacht do it slightly differently.

“They actually played the Intermediate champions in the Connacht final, who Eglish were beaten by, so their competitions are structured slightly different.

“We’re just keeping our heads down and focusing on game by game. We never think about the overall prize, we think about the next game and the next performance, and that’s really where the girls heads are at.”

Knockananna are a familiar foe at this stage, and while they may be concerned with payback for last season’s defeat, Devlin insists his side are concentrating on their own changing room, rather than the one across the hall.

“Even looking at their own results, they’ve beaten a lot of the teams they’ve played quite convincingly this year,” he added. “There’s new management in, and they’re very determined. This’ll be their second All-Ireland final in three years, the same as us.

“Four years ago, they were Junior B All-Ireland champions, I think they’ve done three in a row Leinsters as well. They are a very successful team who have their sights firmly set on winning an All-Ireland title, and that’s something that we don’t take for granted.

“Last year we knew that they were one of the big hitters in the competition in the semi-final, and we had a great start, a great first half in that game, and that probably set us on our way.”

In the semi-final, Granemore led by 0-5 to 1-1 at the half-time interval but Devlin wasn’t happy with their performance in the opening period. They upped the ante after the break, but Devlin wants to see a more consistent performance this weekend.

“We’re going to need to be right up at our best. Certainly if we play like we did for the first 40 minutes of the semi-final this year, we know that’ll not be enough in the final. We’re going to have to be at our best if we’re looking to try and get a result.”

On the injury front, Granemore don’t have any concerns ahead of the game.

“Having Lucy Doyle back this year from a cruciate injury is a massive plus to us,” Devlin continued. “This is the second year in a row we’re going into December. It’s a 10-month season this year, and it was an 11-month season the year before, but the mood is good, and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”