St. Mary’s that bit further down the road

Saturday’s Castlerea Vehicle Recycling Roscommon LGFA Junior A final between St. Mary’s and Four Roads is laden with potential. Throw-in at Ballyleague is 11.30 a.m..

Twelve months ago, St. Mary’s walked off the pitch at the home of St. Faithleach’s GAA Club absolutely devastated, having played their part but ultimately coming up short in what was a sensational 80-minute county final against Northern Harps.

Harps were incredibly competitive in this year’s intermediate championship while St. Mary’s spent this summer demonstrating that they’ve built on from their 2025 season, recording five wins from five games in addition to picking up two victories by way of walkover.

Oran gave them a wonderful contest in Tulsk while their semi-final clash with St. Faithleach’s was a tense low-scoring affair, albeit there was no stage of the game where it looked like the championship favourites were in trouble.

Coming out of the group stages, Oran were expected by most neutral observers to cause St. Mary’s the most trouble from then on and if the Rockfield-based club had just been pipped at the post in their semi-final, then it would be easy to say that the jigsaw pieces were all slotting nicely into the puzzle for Barry Murray’s players.

The fly in the ointment was the manner in which Four Roads comprehensively outplayed Oran in the semi-final, suggesting that the Tisrara ladies have found another gear since their group stage form, which was one point off being as “mid-table” as you could possibly get — three wins and three defeats, 14-33 scored, 8-50 conceded.

Defensively, Four Roads took charge of the business end of that contest with Oonagh Kelly and Mairéad Lohan marshalling the back six superbly to concede just 0-2 in the last 25 minutes.

Liz Coyle is racking up the scores with consistency, sisters Clodagh and Deborah Finneran are adding plenty of fuel to the engine in the middle third and while this is possibly a county final that they’ve reached ahead of schedule, the worst case scenario for a club that is definitely punching above their weight at underage level is that they will take plenty of experience from this fixture, if the task of landing another upset victory proves beyond them.

By any measure, St. Mary’s are further down the development path right now. Fiona Jones, Aoife Jones, Niamh Feeney and Louise Brady are at the peak of their powers, Kate Murray’s two-point scoring ability adds an extra threat that is not present in very many club football teams (all the more at a riverside venue where wind advantage tends to be more of a factor than usual) and the concession of two goals in five games is a record unmatched across any grade of club football in the county this year.

Four Roads will probably need two or even three goals over the hour to put themselves in the mix here, but as Oran will attest to their neighbours from down the road in Tulsk, the potential is there to do just that.

But St. Mary’s should still prevail.

Verdict: St. Mary’s