Ladies Junior Football Championship A Final
Mayobridge 0-10 – Teconnaught 4-10
Teconnaught manager Joe Napier praised the club’s ladies for their fantastic win in the junior final at the weekend and has tipped them for greater things. On Saturday, in a game that was rescheduled at the last minute from Carryduff to Kilcoo, Teconnaught outscored Mayobridge by four goals to win the Junior A Championship for the first time since 2020.
Manager Joe Napier said the team celebrated hard, and he believes the win can maintain the club’s upward trajectory. “Within Down, they have got some good years ahead of them. We have a great bunch of girls. They were promoted to Division Two and they will be in Intermediate next year. I think they will give Division Two a rattle,” he said.
“For the club, it is a culmination of a fair few years of work at underage level. The club won an U-16 B title last year and were involved in the U-14A final at the weekend.”
Having the two finals, the JFC A and the U-14A, in the same weekend was an important moment for the club, and they made a big deal out of it because it represents great progress. “It created a real buzz in the club,” Joe said. “There have been a number of years where you can see the momentum building. They are seeing that things are moving forward.”
The U-14s’ appearance in the grade A final is the first for the club at that level, and they have made steady progress. They lost to Kilcoo but put in a very solid performance for large parts. The result is secondary to the achievement of getting there, and they know they can build upon that.
In the Junior final, Joe said the win came down to having prepared correctly. “We were favourites but we were under no illusion how difficult it was going to be. We were set up to get in front and to make sure that we were not in trouble.”
Aimee Greene grabbed the perfect start with a goal. Then Orlaith Mulholland coolly slotted over a pointed free. In the middle third, Zara Smyth and Kate Bell were excellent. Mayobridge managed a tenth-minute point before Louise Sweeney landed a quickfire 1-1 for Teconnaught. Veteran Maria Carville showed all her experience to craft a point before Sweeney and Emily-Jo McGrattan combined well for the former to land her third score of the day.
Joe said that Teconnaught had a clear plan. “We had talked about getting momentum and getting scores. We controlled the game in the first ten minutes.”
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