Indomitable Leesiders are truly a class apart
That’s six of the last seven years now it’s happened: that whatever team wins the women’s cup final in the curtain-raiser, the feelgood party vibes has continued into the main event and then into the night, with a team from the same city going on to lift the men’s title.
The trend started with TMH Glanmire and UCC Blue Demons in 2009 and it continued at the weekend with the same two sides retaining the titles they each won last year.
It’s hard to know what the rest of the basketball world now dreads most — Leeside triumphalism — for no better place or people to do triumphalism — or the prospect of continued Cork dominance.
In this form, with these players, these setups, it’s hard to see anyone taking either of them again next year or the year after. So be it. This is what both these sides and clubs deserve. For their veterans who are making up for lost time, young players that intend to keep doing this for a long time, and for administrations that have taken the long view.
Glanmire’s win on Saturday night was hardly as enthralling as either Demon’s masterclass or their own classic win over UL last year. But in many ways it was just as impressive for all that. They were playing without any American against a side that had two. It wasn’t happening or flowing for them but through champion grit, they still made it happen for them.
Marie Breen was playing with tonsillitis and had some horrid misses and turnovers in the first half but it didn’t stop her playing terrific defence all through and making big offensive plays in the second half.
Clare Rockall didn’t provide her usual scoring threat but that she played at all and with such energy, given her foot was in a surgical boot only last weekend, was a subtle but vital game winner.
Jessica Scannell isn’t taking the number of shots you would associate with a player just back from a fine D1 college career but she knocked down pretty much whatever she did put up, including a heart-in-the-dagger three-pointer towards the end of the third quarter; her pass-first, team-first ethos proving critical. (Kudos too to her father Mark, especially for identifying a full-court press in the third quarter would upset Killester and up the tempo to Glanmire’s liking.)
Then there was the Dwyer clan. Niamh was another out of synch offensively for much of the first half. Early in the second, Mimi Clarke stripped her off the ball on a breakaway lay-up. Then Dwyer missed one without interference from anyone at all. But look at the plays she made between those two mishaps. A cut to the basket for a lay-up, then a drive and dish to sister Gráinne. After the missed lay-up, she’d literally rebound to take a charge on American Robin Murphy and then nail a shot on the three-point line to give Glanmire their first double-digit lead of the night.
Gráinne didn’t have her best shooting night, going only 6 for 17 from the field, but maintained the mentality of a scorer and a winner: getting to the line and knocking down foul shots (9 for 10), taking and nailing big shots at the top of the key. In all she’d end up with 20 points to go with 10 boards and another MVP. That’s three straight years now she’s scored more than 21 points in the cup final. No other woman’s player has ever done that.
The holy trinity of McElroy, Strickland and Smith are the only men to do that. That’s the kind of history she’s making and resurrecting.
Before the game, Killester coach Mark Grennell said his team were relishing the underdog tag and in the first half, it told. With his shrewd game plan they forced Glanmire to shoot and miss from the outside. But in the closing minutes of the third quarter, just as Mimi Clarke had got herself into the game, he took her out. With that went their chance. They just didn’t get enough production from their second American, Olivia Lee (four points). They didn’t get enough from anyone. The harsh truth is the real cup final was a fortnight ago in the Neptune Stadium, when Glanmire again just about edged their great and old rivals DCU Mercy. Until such time as basketball can secure more than one night a year on national television, there needs to be more thought put into increasing the likelihood of the two best teams in the country playing in such a showcase.
In the men’s, blowouts mightn’t be fun to watch but this one was because Demons are. The league has never seen better basketball, certainly not better team-basketball. That’s not just down to talent. For all the fine teams this league has thrown up, this is the first with the inter-county GAA-style prep, high-performance mentality first adopted in the women’s game by the back-to-back DCU and then UL Huskies women’s cup-winning teams that helped prevent any Cork-only cup night parties from 2010 to 2013.
The star and cause of it all is player-coach, Colin O’Reilly, all the more so because the system and culture he’s installed allows everyone else shine. Anyone in the Arena on Saturday night, or among the tens of thousands back home taking it in on TV, watching him up close drawing up plays and conducting them could recognise one serious operator.
It was underlined by his understated demeanour after the game. Already he was speaking about next week’s league game against Killester, the side who denied Demons the league last year. His brother Niall and the magnificent Shane Coughlan might have just won an unprecedented sixth cup medal but Coughlan still has only two league medals though this is 17th year in that league. The club hasn’t won the league since 2009. For this group of players, that’s just not good enough. And that mindset is why they now seem far too good for everyone else.
