Brady banks on Drumlane’s ‘quality’

Ladies football

Kevin Óg Carney

With a JFC title (2012) and IFC title (2020) to their credit, Drumlane’s ladies’ football fraternity will hope to complete a glorious hat-trick by winning this year’s SFC at Kingspan Breffni on Saturday next at 4pm.

Standing in the way of the best the west has produced this year is a Lacken Celtic team which will do all in its power to prevent Drumlane making club history by scooping the spoils at HQ.

Drumlane currently sport a team that couldn’t be any hungrier, couldn’t be any more ambitious and with an average age of 24 would appear to be ready to go where no Drumlane ladies football team has ever gone before.

“We know the prize that’s on offer but maybe unlike other years, we have the belief that we’re good enough to win the final,” enthuses Ciara Brady (24), Drumlane’s team captain.

“We’ve been described as a ‘coming team’ but I think now is our time to strike gold. We’ve gone from junior to intermediate and had successes there but the dream now is to finally win the most prestigious cup there is in Cavan and we plan to realise that dream.”

Brady admits that she personally has been eyeing up a place at the top table from the very first day that the Drumlane team got together for their first training session last spring.

It seems that the hurt the Hoops felt in losing out in last year’s SFC semi-final to Lurgan was a large dollop of medicine but then a bevy of inspiration came along as well:

“I think the lads doing so well to win the junior (football) championship and then going onto the Ulster final was a big source of inspiration and motivation for us.

“The lads’ success definitely spurred us ons and it was that bit more easy to regroup at the start of the year and look towards getting our own hands on silverware and in fairness to Eamonn (Fitzpatrick) and Ollie (Fay), they have gotten the best out of us all year. Now it’s just one more big game and we’ll remember it for the rest of our lives.”

Having netted a win – albeit by just a handful of points – against Lacken Celtic in their last group game, Drumlane will arguably go into Saturday’s final as slight favourites but, either way, in Brady’s mind, the game will be “a very sporting match with probably a lot of scores and end to end football.”

“Some people might make us favourites but Lacken will be very difficult to beat. They are a very mature and experienced team and a few of their players might just be thinking that this year’s final will represent one last hurrah for them.

“Lacken have the know-how as well in terms of how to win senior finals but we hope to bring enough hunger and belief to the table to get us over the line.

Brady is delighted with “the buzz that’s around Drumlane right now” and she is confident the younger members of the squad won’t be overcome with stage fright when they get the chance to show their mettle on Saturday.

“As they say, we all need to play the game and not the occasion and to be totally focussed on our individual jobs on the day.

“The win over Crosserlough (this year’s SFC semi-fina) showed us just what we can do and built on the feeling we had after coming so close to defeating Lurgan in last year’s semi-final.

“Winning the intermediate (championship) in 2020 (against Castlerahan/Denn) was great but it won’t compare to the satisfaction we’ll feel if we come good against Lacken.

“Winning the senior final would mean the absolute world to us all. We know we’re only 60 minutes or so from fulfilling a dream. We fully respect the quality Lacken have in their team and their experience but we are convinced we have enough to beat them.”