Leeside gets ready for Cup feast
Last evening, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Mick O’Connell, urged the people of the city to turn out in force to support the event when he held a reception for the organisers, Glanmire Basketball Club and the Cork Ladies Board at City Hall.
The event will bring hundreds of players and supporters to the city with a huge interest in the four SuperLeague Cup semi-finals, which brings the two favourites for the cup, champions 11890 Killester, and high-flying Limerick side, UL Eagles, into opposition for a thrilling climax to the programme.
Glanmire are hoping to get three teams through to the women’s finals again when the U18’s, the U20’s and the Team Montenotte Hotel SuperLeague side go into action. Last year Team Montenotte Hotel were foiled in their bid for four-in-a-row by DCU Mercy, who will be back to defend their title.
“To be fair, we had won three in-a-row and we bounced back and won the league,” coach Mark Scannell said. “I could not begrudge DCU their victory. It is very difficult to do four in-a-row — three-in-a-row is difficult enough to achieve. To be going for four in-a-row was a huge burden on us.
“It was one of those years we did not win the senior cup but we won the U18’s and U20’s and that was a great achievement in itself.”
The turn-over of players at Glanmire has been phenomenal, but each year the coach has been able to draw on the wealth of talent coming through from a superb under-age programme.
“The year previous we lost Michelle Fahey and Denise Walsh and April Cahalane had been there, too, and when you think about the twins and Jessica (Scannell) in America, we had lost six or seven players,” he said.
“This year again we lost Donna Buckley, Niamh Dwyer, Valerie O’Driscoll and Casey Grace and Emily O’Callaghan who are in America. We have been able to survive because we have been successful in the U18 and U20 competitions and we are bringing those players through. It’s a credit to the people in the club who put in the work. I get a lot of credit for coaching the teams but my job is easy really because all I have to do is turn up three or four nights a week and do my job.
“We’ve been in every final for the past three years - we have three teams again this year - we’ve been very lucky from that point of view. But we never take anything for granted. We are only in a semi-final. We have broken Wildcats’ hearts for three out of the last four years so they will be gunning for us. They have nothing to lose. It’s a one-off game for them. They are a young team and they are well coached. Sean O’Regan is their coach and he was in Glanmire before me so we know his pedigree.”
Timmy Murphy, president of Basketball Ireland, as well as being chairman of Glanmire Basketball Club, said this was going to be another great weekend for Cork.
“This is the second time in 18 years that the semi-finals have been held in Cork,” he said. “Last year the Cork public came out in force, the games were tremendous, the atmosphere was brilliant and it was always on the cards it would come back if the people were willing to run it and that’s what the Cork Ladies Board and Glanmire, in tandem, have done.”
Neptune Stadium and the Parochial Hall will be the venues for the Saturday games featuring the Senior Cup, U20 Cup and U18 Cup in both men’s and women’s codes. The Neptune Stadium will host the men’s games, while the women’s games will take place at the Parochial Hall.
On Sunday, the SuperLeague National Cup semi-finals take centre stage, with women’s National Cup champions DCU Mercy taking on 11890 Killester in the opening game and hosts Team Montenotte Hotel Cork facing Meteors in a repeat of last year’s semi-final.
In the afternoon, Ulster Elks make their first appearance in a semi-final against UCD Marian before treble champions 11890 Killester play Southern Conference leaders UL Eagles in defence of their title.
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