Mullahoran focusing on themselves ahead of big test

Ladies football

In 2018 Seanie Smith lead the Mullahoran men’s team to an intermediate title in Cavan and all the way to an Ulster final and now the former Cavan minor manager is looking to go one better with the Mullahoran ladies. In a parish where football is a religion, the whole community is out in support of the ladies.

“There is a great buzz. It’s been a great run so far for the girls. With the weather the way it has been good as well and everything else it’s certainly making it a short November for us,” Smith said.

The Dreadnoughts have a great mix of youth and experience in the panel but the build-up in the local area might be something different for the players as all the local attention is firmly fixed and the girls. That can bring a pressure but the former Senior Championship-winning captain with Mullahoran doesn’t see that as a problem.

“Within the group, there’s a lot of experience. In the last game we played, the semi-final, the 15 starters would have had some level of either underage, U16, minor or senior county experience over the last 10 or 15 years. So they are very good at doing that. Even recently, we’ve a couple of girls that played in All-Ireland U16 and minor finals. The way I’ve always approached it with them is ‘do the same things that you were doing then in terms of managing it’ and they’re pretty good at it.”

“The other side of it as well is you have to enjoy the experience of being in an Ulster final as well. This week we’ll just be saying enjoy the moment, enjoy today, enjoy tomorrow as you go along because these things don’t come around too often.

“So you have to try to get the balance between putting them into a bubble and locking them away and not letting them take in the atmosphere. But we do remind them when we come together at training that it’s just another game. It’s a final but there’s a great opportunity for them to make history.”

Between Mullahoran and provincial glory are the Monaghan champions Carrickmacross and while Seanie respects what they have done to date, he’s more focused on what Mullahoran do than what they do.

“No, I don’t know a whole lot about them, just the results they’ve had over the last couple of weeks as well. They have been something similar to ourselves in terms that they have overtaken a lot of teams and beaten them convincingly. They have the advantage of being in an Ulster Championship in the last three or four years. In 2021 they were involved in the Junior Ulster championship which they won so they know the process better than us when it comes to Ulster. Monaghan has a great tradition as well as Cavan so we’re expecting a really tough challenge on Sunday.”

A rising tide lifts all boats and with a surge of underage success over the last number of years for Cavan, expectations are now higher for all Cavan teams that take the field. With multiple All-Ireland winners between schools and inter-county football, in the Mullahoran squad anything other than a win will be a disappointment.

“The bar has been raised. When there’s a group of talented footballers like we’ve seen around and we’ve seen the progress that has been made at underage level at county level, it’s time to start raising the bar.

“We should be at the top table more often than we are. I wouldn’t say that carries more pressure but I think it carries a great opportunity for Mullahoran or Lurgan on Sunday to go and make history and bring it to another level. Both teams are well capable of that so I don’t put it down as pressure.

“The players themselves know this is a great opportunity for both Lurgan and Mullahoran to bring Cavan ladies football to another level. We are all expecting hopefully that that will happen over the next number of years with the talent that’s available in Cavan football over the last four or five years at underage level.”

With just six days to go to the final, Seanie gave an update on the injury front for Mullahoran.

“There are one or two injuries. We lost Annie Deneher there last week to injury through college football and I suppose that’s one of the challenges at this time of year. Moving into November but it’s still a busy time for a lot of girls. Not just in Mullahoran but in every club, between schools and college games going on, that’s always the risk at this time of year. Hopefully all might be well by Sunday but at the minute there’s just one or two things.”