ULSTER FINALS COULD BE DOUBLE-HEADER
Richard Bullick
Gaelic football’s Ulster Senior Championship showpieces will be combined as a double-header next month if the men of Armagh and Donegal join their female counterparts as the provincial final pairing in their code.
As the only two top tier teams from the province, the ladies footballers from fierce rivals Armagh and Donegal are already guaranteed to meet in the Ulster final for the seventh time in the past eight seasons in a showdown provisionally scheduled for May 18.
Ulster champions Armagh are favourites to claim the provincial crown for a fifth time this decade and will hope in the meantime to have retained their National League title by beating All Ireland champions Kerry in the Division One decider at Croke Park on Saturday week.
By contrast, all nine counties compete in a single tier Ulster Championship in men’s gaelic football and, with heavyweights Armagh and Donegal on opposite sides of the draw, there is a decent chance both could come through to contest the final.
There are a number of close links between the two Armagh senior teams but the women will be cheering on the men even more enthusiastically this time round as a double-header would guarantee a much bigger crowd for the ladies decider than a standalone game.
The men’s provincial football final for 2025 was originally fixed for the second Sunday in May but Ulster GAA has announced that, if Armagh and Donegal both make it through, the big game will instead be played the day before with the ladies showpiece as the curtain-raiser.
The 2014 ladies Ulster final was played ahead of a men’s provincial championship match and Orchard captain Caroline O’Hanlon had the thrill of lifting the trophy in front of a five-figure crowd in Clones after her team’s stunning upset of Monaghan.
The formidable Farney women were the dominant force in Ulster ladies football back then and, managed that season by local legend John Morrison, mighty Monaghan were hot favourites to complete five-in-a-row by beating the then unfancied Armagh.
But despite having spent that spring playing two league levels lower than their opponents in Division Three, James Daly’s Armagh were worthy winners on the day as the orangewomen ended a seven-year wait for just the third Ulster title in Orchard history.
Two years ago, Armagh ladies crushed Cavan in a provincial group game ahead of the men’s Ulster final – in which Kieran McGeeney’s side agonisingly lost to Derry on penalties –and again enjoyed the chance to shine in front of a larger audience than usual.
This time though, there would be silverware at stake in both codes and an Orchard double would mean a first Ulster title triumph in 17 years for the Armagh men, albeit they are the reigning All Ireland champions after securing Sam Maguire glory last summer.
Meanwhile, Joe Feeney and Darnell Parkinson’s Armagh ladies, will have two Leinster sides in their All Ireland group this summer if they defeat Donegal, for the Ulster champions have been bracketed with the eastern province’s runners-up and third-placed team.
If Dublin lift the Leinster title yet again, that would mean Meath and Kildare being in the same section as Armagh, who were edged 2-12 to 4-5 by the Royals in their final regular league game in NFL Division One at the Athletic Grounds at the weekend.
Armagh led by eight points early in the third quarter but Emma Duggan grabbed the win for the visitors by punishing Orchard over-carrying with a last-kick free in the 10th minute of injury-time having just scored a great equalising goal moments before.
Already assured of their place in this month’s divisional showpiece at Croke Park, Armagh made a dozen substitutions during the game including first senior inter-county appearances for Lara Marsden, daughter of Orchard legend Diarmaid, and Cailin Traynor.
Young Silverbridge goalkeeper Traynor came on in nets for Brianna Mathers, who had made a succession of stunning saves for Armagh, whose goals came from Niamh Coleman, Eve Lavery, Aoife McCoy and Derrynoose prospect Caoimhe McNally, her first at this level.
Having had cameo appearances in the Waterford defeat the previous Saturday, Orchard captain Clodagh McCambridge and her predecessor as skipper Kelly Mallon both made their first starts of the season after injury and appeared to come through unscathed.
The other All Ireland groups will see the Connacht champions play the Ulster runners-up plus the fourth team in Munster, whose provincial winners are set to be in with the losing finalists from the west and the third-placed southern side.
That looks like the proverbial group of death whereas the Leinster champions and Munster runners-up appear all but guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals as they have been bracketed with Division Four outfit Leitrim, who won last year’s All Ireland Intermediate title.
