Husband-and-wife team up for Dublin in decider

DURING the past few weeks, twin brothers have won All-Ireland medals - with Cork senior hurlers Ben and Jerry O’Connor and the Kilkenny Under-21’s Conor and John Phelan.

Unusually, if not uniquely so, next Sunday’s TG4 All-Ireland ladies senior football final in Croke Park features a husband-and-wife combination.

Martina Farrell, a native of Co Westmeath, is midfielder on the Dublin team - and also the captain - while husband Dave is a selector.

Dave was goalkeeping coach last year, and then became a selector.

According to Martina, it’s the ideal arrangement. “I can tell you, you’d nearly be divorced if you didn’t have the two people involved,” she jokes.

“It really helps because it’s so time consuming.”

The ladies game is thriving in the capital, with 188 teams (representing 53 clubs) competing. That involves a massive 10,000 players, of whom 7,000 at juveniles, and the Dublin side features a 15-year old, Lindsay Davey, from the Skerries Harps club.

Success has followed. Leinster champions for the past three years, Dublin also contested the 2003 final, when they lost to Mayo in a dramatic finish.

“There were 94 seconds left on the clock when Mayo scored the goal to win the game,” recalls Martina. “It was devastating to lose at that stage.”

The clock has been in use for a few years, while Cumann Peil na mBan introduced the sin bin rule at the start of the season, which has had a largely positive reaction. “I don’t think the clock is a distraction, because you would not be looking at it,” she said.

“It’s a good thing. People know exactly how much time is left.”

According to Martina, the appointment of John O’Leary as manager has been good for the team, while emphasising they had “a fabulous management” last year under Mick Bohan.

“When John came in (for Bohan), we were lucky that the rest of the management stayed on. John has a lot of experience as a player himself. He has won a couple of All-Irelands and lost in a couple, so he knows what he is doing,” said Martina.

Understandably, the Dublin girls had been looking forward to taking on Mayo again this year, but Galway destroyed that hope.

“The Mayo girls brought ladies football to a new level, and we all have to follow their lead. Yes, it would be nice to have another crack at Mayo, but, we are in the All-Ireland final and it doesn’t matter who is there. We just want to win.

“We played Galway a couple of times already so we know them fairly well. They are very balanced, the same as us. We expect it to be a very good running game.”

Dublin are determined to tighten up in defence having conceded 3-8 to Kerry in the semi-final, with the highly-rated Kacey O’Driscoll scoring all three goals for Kerry.

“Obviously it was a weakness in our game the last day and hopefully we have addressed that,” said Martina.

“But, Kacey is an excellent player, you can’t deny that. She’s very young and has fabulous skill. Just because we were in the final last year doesn’t guarantee we’re going to win. We will be going out to play to our very best and if that happens we’ll win.”