Senior race promises plenty of twists and turns

The feelgood factor that has enveloped the county since Roscommon secured their All-Ireland title in such a comprehensive fashion will continue for a long time to come, but the reinforced sense of camaraderie and sisterhood among the players will be set aside for the next few months as the adult club championships gather momentum.

The best of the domestic action will take place in the John Keane Kia Senior Championship, with four games down for decision this Sunday morning (11 a.m.) to kick off the group stages.

The championship has been extended to eight teams, with St. Barry’s joining the race for the Marie McAleer Cup after their intermediate success last year.

The format remains the same however, with two round robin groups of four to sort out placings, followed by quarter-finals on the second weekend in September. It’s a structure that allows some leeway for teams to find their feet over the next month, before it all gets very cut-throat in a hurry.

As the only side who didn’t win a game in the 2025 senior championship and one of just two teams coming into this campaign on the back of Division Two League football, Shannon Gaels have the most to find to get into the mix. They’ve also been handed a formidable first round assignment, away to county champions St. Brigid’s.

There are no obvious clouds on the horizon for the Kiltoom side, with Moate native Niall Mackey back at the helm for a repeat championship bid, ably assisted by club stalwart Edel Menton.

A significant cohort of the side that beat Clann na nGael in last year’s decider were only a year or two out of the minor grade — if even that — and that extra year of championship action is likely to stand to players like Alison Nugent, Lucy Sheffield and Aoife Minnock.

There’s no denying the quality of their frontline stars, and the performances of Ria Lennon, Áine McGrath, Abby Curran and Kate Nolan in Croke Park a fortnight ago would suggest that the defending champions are ideally poised to hit the ground running.

For Shannon Gaels, Fintan Cregg continues at the helm of a group that still has a decent smattering of the team that contested a county senior final six years ago, but the reinforcements haven’t come through to the extent that they would like in Croghan. Two league wins in Division Two, without the prospect of a cohort of reinforcements coming in from the county side, means that out of the eight teams in senior, they are the ones with the most to do to try and be competitive this summer.

In terms of the title race, perhaps the most interesting and informative game to be played this weekend will be the other game in that group — the contest in Tarmonbarry between St. Barry’s and Boyle.

Intermediate champions last year, St. Barry’s, gave Caltra Cuans probably their toughest game the Galway champions faced in their run to the All-Ireland intermediate club final, where they lost out to Knockbride of Cavan.

Like St. Brigid’s, the bulk of this St. Barry’s team have yet to hit their prime, though a Division One League title would indicate that they are on the cusp of it.

Shannon McGuinness’ return from her foreign studies gives the team real power and physical strength to go with a lively and free-scoring group of middle third players, and if Cara and Grace Cox can make the same scoring impact at senior level as they have at intermediate, then they are genuine title contenders.

As it happens, Boyle could be as big a barrier to that ambition as any of the other seven clubs in the mix.

Since winning the senior title with that late surge against Clann three years ago in Ballyforan, Boyle have struggled to get back to that level, in no small part because of the absence of so many key players.

Now that the Wynne (Saoirse and Roisín) sisters are both available to manager Kieran McKeon, Ruth Cox has put her injury issues behind her, Aisling Feely is back to her free-scoring best after her own injury woes, and there remains a solid cohort of players like Heather Kerins, Grace Flanagan and Isobel King who are at the peak of their powers and capable of backboning a team that will look to put the memory of their disappointing semi-final display from last year behind them.

Group B features 2024 champions and 2025 finalists Clann na nGael as the seeded team, but their short trip north to take on St. Ciarán’s will be a serious test of their championship credentials.

Without question the most experienced panel in the race for championship glory, the absence of any real jeopardy in these early games may lead new manager John Molloy to try and test out some of the younger players in his panel, knowing that he has his veterans to call on later in the campaign.

While getting minutes into those coming back from long-term injury, most notably Jenny Higgins, is likely to be part of the Athlone clubman’s plan for these early games, any of the returning county players with any sort of niggles or strains could well be held back for a while.

The club’s 2024 championship success came on the back of a disjointed round robin campaign where several stalwarts, most notably county final Player of the Match Orla McManus, timed her return to perfection. The lessons from that campaign are unlikely to be forgotten around Johnstown.

For St. Ciarán’s, the need to get some early momentum is a little bit more pressing. As usual, most of Ger Dowd’s panel will have camogie commitments that have to be balanced over the coming weeks, and while there’s no danger of this committed group losing their focus if they don’t get the start they want, it’s a lot easier to keep spirits up and to make football training a happier place to be, if you get a few positive results.

Given their undeniable scoring power through players like Laura Mannion and Ciara Dowd, they have the talent to pick up results, albeit in a fiercely competitive group.

If there is a team in the championship that embodies the spirit of being better than the sum of their constituent parts, then that team is Éire Óg. 

Whether there is the scoring power in the group needed to compete at this level is another matter, and tallies of 1-4, 1-6, 1-7 and 0-9 in four of their six league games — when they were a lot closer to full strength than most of their rivals — is something of a concern.

Nonetheless this is a group that was able to step up their performance levels considerably from league to championship last year, as St. Dominic’s saw first-hand when they were pipped by the West Roscommon side in Knockcroghery.

This Sunday the two teams meet again, this time in Ballaghaderreen, and while it’s the visitors who will start as favourites, there is a strong sense around Knockcroghery, Lecarrow and Rahara of needing to take advantage of a championship window that could well start to close before long.

Dominic’s went down honourably in a feisty semi-final battle with Clann last year but they keep banging their heads off the same ceiling, and it’s not because they lack the talented young players needed to freshen up this team. It’s the established stars — those in their mid and late 20s — that didn’t quite reach their potential in 2025.

How Aidan Connaughton and his coaches address that deficit will determine their fate in a wide open renewal of the John Keane Kia Senior Championship — one that has now had three different championship winners in the last three years, and where it’s entirely possible that any of those three clubs, or indeed a handful more, could get their hands on the Marie McAleer Cup over the next couple of months.