‘We’ll be stronger next year’

JUST as they were in their approach to the game, Armagh ladies were positive in their reaction to losing yesterday’s TG4 All-Ireland senior football final.

Heart-broken yes, but gracious in defeat. Admirably so.

Joint coach Jacqui Clarke and proud team captain Bronagh O’Donnell were philosophical about the sin-binning of one of their defenders early in the second-half and about another controversial refereeing decision at the end.

On the sin-binning, which saw defender Caoimhe Marley sent off for 10 minutes, Clarke said: “Referees make decisions and at the end of the day you have to respect them. The referee saw fit that it was a sin-binning. You deal with it and you get on with it. And you learn from the experience.”

For her part, Bronagh O’Donnell said: “There is nothing you can do. It probably happened at an important time in the match but these decisions go with you some days and other days against you. We re-grouped and we defended well. Our forwards were brilliant, but this is a great Cork team.”

In contrast to the way Cork struggled in the first-half, Armagh hit the ground running from the throw-in. O’Donnell said: “We knew we had the players and the ability to beat them. We went at them right from the start and we had a good first half. Fair play to Cork, they came out all guns blazing in the second-half and maybe put us on the back foot.”

Clarke, Down’s All-Ireland winning junior captain six years ago, was pleased the team had answered their critics. “These girls were heroes and warriors out there. There will be a lot of people saying we’re ‘second best.’ In our minds we’re the best team. We have come on hugely from winning the junior title last year and that was a big ask at the time,” she said.

She said it was to be expected that Cork would make it difficult for them in the second-half: “We knew they were not going to let go of their title easily. They didn’t disappoint, they threw everything at us. We expected that. We dealt with it as best as we could. On other days when it came down to the last minute ‘something special’ has come. But that something special just didn’t come today.

“These girls have given everything and they’ll be stronger next year. By no means are they gone.”