Orla Finn’s reward for All-Ireland win: Four games in seven days
Allow us, then, cry foul on her behalf.
Last Sunday’s All-Ireland ladies football final threw up two remarkable stories and yet, come Monday morning, Cork’s 11th All-Ireland title in 12 seasons and the record attendance of 34,445 had been edged out of the conversation.
All anyone wanted to talk about was the LGFA’s failure to avail of HawkEye and how its absence had cost Dublin a legitimate first-half score.
The LGFA, according to Dublin manager Gregory McGonigle, had shot themselves in the foot.
Down in Cork, the county board and, indeed, the Munster LGFA haven’t been covering themselves in glory either this week.
By 5.30pm tomorrow, Orla Finn — the contributor of three points in Cork’s sixth consecutive All-Ireland success — will have played four games in the space of seven days.
Forty-eight hours after Sunday’s victory over Dublin, Finn lined out at full-forward for Kinsale in the county junior final against Dromtariffe.
The scheduling of the game so close to the All-Ireland final meant she was forced away from the celebrations when, in truth, they were only getting started, not to mind the wholly insignificant period in terms of recovery.
A first county junior title progressed Kinsale into this afternoon’s Munster quarter-final against Austin Stacks at Dromtariffe (12.30pm) and irrespective of the result there, she’ll complete a hectic week in the colours of West Cork in tomorrow’s county senior semi-final against Mourneabbey (Kilmurry, 4pm).
Gregory McGonigle, during his tirade of the LGFA underneath the Hogan Stand, was adamant the HawkEye blunder would not be tolerated in the men’s game.
It’s also fair to say no Tipperary hurler or Dublin or Mayo footballer would be asked to play a county semi-final, final and Munster quarter-final in the six days after winning an All-Ireland.
Finn, though, doesn’t want to come across as ungrateful. County and All-Ireland medals are what the 24-year old set out to achieve at the start of the year. Her sole wish is that they could have been garnered across a larger timeframe.
“I’d love if I had a week or two off after the All-Ireland to enjoy the celebrations,” said the primary school teacher. “I suppose I am now exactly where I wanted to be at the start of the year. I do appreciate the county board are under pressure to run these fixtures off and they have to get them played. A few days off would have been nice, though.”
Having to depart Mourneabbey at 1am on Tuesday morning is hardly ideal in marking your sixth All-Ireland medal.
“I took it handy on Monday as it would have been unfair to the other girls in Kinsale. We’ve never been up intermediate so to get the victory on Tuesday was huge. We have a very young team. I would be third oldest and it was a case of just waiting for those younger girls to get some experience.”
And of Kinsale’s 4-17, how much did she contribute?
“Dad reckoned I kicked 1-10.” We’ll take dad’s word.
A dead leg sustained in the aftermath of Tuesday’s win means she’ll be relying on the adrenaline of the two victories to get her through the two remaining assignments. “You’re just bouncing from one game into another. It was easy enough play on Tuesday as you were still on a high from Sunday. Hopefully, it’ll be the same for the weekend. And while it’s been busy, it would be great to keep it going.”
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