It’s hard to look beyond Rebels
The clash is a repeat of the 2008 final which the ladies from the southern province won to make it a four in a row of titles.
Cork blazed a trail through the league — their only defeat coming against the Farney women in Emyvale, but that was way back in February and the Rebel ladies have gone from strength to strength since, winning the league in convincing fashion against Laois.
They then had the reigning champions Dublin in the last eight and advanced by the slenderest of margins — but not before overturning a six-point deficit late in the game.
In the semi-final they had little difficulty against Laois and are thus, worthy finalists tomorrow.
The Monaghan ladies, in terms of success couldn’t be more in contrast to their southern rivals. They are in the midst of a famine for All-Ireland honours that now extends back to 1997.
Despite that, they are in an ideal position to ambush the raging hot favourites.
Currently, they are priced at 3/1 to stage an upset and with the likes of Sharon Courtney, Therese McNally and Ciara McAnespie in their side, they cannot be taken lightly.
The Farney women finished joint top of the league on 21 points but were subsequently beaten by Laois in the semi-final.
Cork still have the nucleus of the team that has delivered so much success over the years and with the Walsh sisters Angela and Ann-Marie, as well as Brid Stack in defence, the totemic figure of Juliet Murphy in midfield and team captain Amy O’Shea in attack, it is very hard to look beyond Cork.
Crucially, from a Monaghan point of view, they have beaten Cork already this year — that was the Leesiders only defeat in the league. If Monaghan can muster the same energy and enthusiasm, as well as taking their chances — as Tyrone did when they shocked Cork in the quarter-final last year — they will have an outside chance, but only that.
Conventional wisdom points to a Cork win, and rightly so.
Meanwhile, Cork ladies football boss Eamonn Ryan believes the association needs to look at changing the structure of the game at inter-county level.
Provincial winners, he believes, are not being facilitated and instead it hands the onus to beaten finalists or provincial semi-final losers who can gather momentum much easier with a series of games.
Despite having won the last eight Munster titles, Ryan is unhappy with the current system as it has often resulted in a two-month lay-off between the provincial final and All-Ireland series, which is then usually played off within a matter of weeks.
“I think it’s a huge drawback — the lay-off,” he said. “We found it hard to deal with it most years, when the break goes over three or four weeks it becomes very difficult to get up to the pace of the game again. The way we’re situated geographically in the south makes it hard to even get challenge games in that timeframe, we find the break very hard to cope with and I have to question the reasoning for it. Momentum is hard, getting up to the pace of the game as we found against Dublin in the quarter-final.”
Those calls were echoed by Rebel defender Deirdre O’Reilly.
“I suppose compacting the championship a little bit more is something I’d like to see. Sometimes you’re waiting two months from the Munster final to the quarter-final of the All-Ireland, it’s a long wait of almost seven or eight weeks and it’s a long time without having a championship game. The Munster championship used to be played at the end of July so you’ve got three or four weeks to get into the quarter-final. Eight weeks is too long really and I think if it was pushed back to what it was before, it would be much better. I don’t know what the thinking is behind it really because you’ve only got about a month between the league and the first round of the championship and then you’re waiting ages for championship again. And I know it’s for backdoor games and that but it’s not facilitating the winners.”
Verdict: Cork
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