By Shaun Casey

CLANN Éireann manager Gregory McGonigle says his side aren’t looking back on the glories of last season, when they collected their first ever Ulster title, but are fully focused on the 2024 campaign.

McGonigle’s girls will defend their crown on Sunday against Cavan champions Lurgan and Clann Éireann, who have a host of Armagh players in their ranks, are the favourites to once again get their hands on the trophy.

They’ve been in impressive form right throughout the campaign, ever since earning their third county title on the trot. They dismissed Emyvale and Kinawley in devastating fashion before seeing off Moneyglass in the semi-final.

“The way we have looked at it all year, when you win your county championship and once the Ulster campaign starts, we no longer have the cup,” said former Armagh boss McGonigle. “The cup has been returned so it’s just the exact same as last year.

“We want to win as many games as possible and see where that will take us. In terms of being defending champions, we were champions in 2023 but it’s now 2024 and it’s a whole new year and you have to treat it like that.

“We’re not taking the cup with us on Sunday, the cup has been returned to the Ulster Council, so we don’t own the cup anymore so it’s up to us to try and win it back.”

On the build up to this season’s showpiece compared to 12 months ago, which was their first appearance in the decider, McGonigle added: “There’s not that much difference.

“Possibly it’s gone a wee bit under the radar because the men are obviously going so well too. It’s a great time in the club with the minor girls and lads competing in Ulster as well.

“When the club’s going well, it probably takes more of the attention away which is good enough for us. We’ve been just training away and there’s less hype around the whole thing than there would have been last year.”

On the way to last year’s glory, the Armagh ladies saw off Drumlane, Moneyglass and Bredagh to take home the cup and this time around it’s Lurgan of Cavan who provide the final hurdle.

“Our minors played them this year and won a tight game by just a goal in the end. They were beaten last year in the Ulster minor final and won the Ulster minor final the year before that, so they have been coming,” added McGonigle.

“They’ve possibly been a bit like Clann Éireann as in they’ve been the more dominant team in Cavan for the past six or seven years. They’ve really only lost out to Crosserlough, Lacken and Drumlane.

“They’re very fit, very fast and very well-coached. They’re well-organised defensively, we got to watch a bit of their game against Crosserlough in the county final, which was a really good game of football.

“We know a wee bit about them but we’re trying to concentrate on getting our own performance levels and our own standards where they need to be. We were very good for about 40 minutes against Moneyglass but we need to keep that going for the full game.”

Clann Éireann have struck 11 goals in their three Ulster outings to date and while they carry the threat of captain Niamh Henderson, who picked up the Player of the Match award for Armagh in this year’s Ulster final, other players are helping to step up as well.

“We believe we have good forwards. We have Eimear McConaghy who came in from last year and kicked 0-4 against Moneyglass and we try to get more scores from across the forward line.

“We want a spread of scorers so we’re not too reliant on Niamh Murray or Niamh Henderson. The last day, Cassie (Henderson) scored 1-2 and Aoibhin Donohue scored a goal while Niamh Murray scored 2-4 or 2-5 against Kinawley.

“We’d like to get scores from all over the field but we weren’t happy with how we defended in the last quarter against Moneyglass. That’s obviously been an area of improvement for the collective – to not sit back on a lead, to try and keep building on it.

“That maybe takes a wee bit more effort. It’s on us as well in regard to getting fresh legs on to try and keep the tempo high, instead of just sitting on what we have so that’s work that we’ve been doing over the last two weeks.”