Ladies JFC final: Captains taking a journey into the unknown
Daire Walsh
Experience can count for a lot on the big stage, and in the form of Aine Breen and Shannan McQuade, today’s junior teams – Louth and Fermanagh – have captains that are well-acquainted with All-Ireland ladies football final day in Croke Park.
An unused substitute for their All-Ireland junior championship success over Scotland in 2015, Breen started Louth’s showpiece defeat to Limerick in the same competition at GAA HQ three years later. The St Patrick’s club star was then introduced off the bench when the Wee County overcame the challenge of a Fermanagh side that featured McQuade amongst their ranks in the 2019 junior final in the same venue.
While she was happy to be part of a wider squad effort for those 2015 and 2019 triumphs, Breen admitted captaining her side to victory against Fermanagh later on today (throw-in for the junior final at Croke Park is 11.45am) would be extra special.
“It would be a massive honour. Looking back, seeing Michelle [McMahon] in 2015 and Kate [Flood] in 2019 lifting the cup, you never really think it’s going to be you. For me to do that, it would be an absolute honour. I think to do so on behalf of the team that we have at the minute would be a dream come through essentially,” Breen acknowledged.
“I guess in 2015 and 2019 I wasn’t starting essentially, but I think it’s no different whether you’re number 1 or number 30. You still want the team to win. Of course when you’re out on the pitch and when you’re able to, in one sense, control what’s happening out there, it’s that bit special. As captain I think it’s even more special.”
Five years prior to being on the receiving end of that aforementioned defeat to Louth in 2019, McQuade lined out for Fermanagh in an All-Ireland intermediate championship reversal to Down at Croke Park. She was also a starter when the Erne side played out a thrilling draw with Antrim in the All-Ireland junior final of 2022, before coming out on the wrong side of a replayed encounter with the Saffron women at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.
She does have a junior championship crown to her name from 2020, but that decider win over Wicklow was played out in an empty Parnell Park on Dublin’s northside at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In stark contrast to the precocious teenager who made her Croker debut all of a decade ago, McQuade now feels like a much more rounded footballer for her latest appearance in the stadium.
“The nerves probably ate me up that day [in 2014], it was my first day out. I think I was 16, 17 going onto Croke Park that day. I’m a lot older now than I was then. Hopefully lessons learnt and I’m looking forward to taking it all in on Sunday,” McQuade said.
“Fermanagh hadn’t been there in a few years and it obviously meant a lot to us [to make the 2014 final]. I think we were distracted maybe by the big occasion, but I’ll be definitely telling the other players on the team to enjoy the experience and to not let it consume you. It’s another pitch, just with a big stadium around it. Just enjoy it.”
While it is the exact same opponents as their most recent outing in Croke Park, Breen believes the fact Louth and Fermanagh haven’t met competitively since that junior final in 2019 means that both teams will arguably be taking a journey into the unknown today.
“It’s funny that we actually haven’t met each other since that final, being in different grades and that. We haven’t met in this year’s championship, we weren’t in each other’s group. I think both teams are really looking forward to it,” Breen added.
“I think just the fact we haven’t met each other, there’s probably a little bit of the unknown. Hopefully we can just bring excitement. Both teams will really go at it.”
Whereas Louth are aiming for an automatic return to the intermediate grade following their relegation at the end of the 2023 championship, this is the third year in succession that Fermanagh have been attempting to reclaim a place in ladies football’s second-tier.
Their semi-final victory at the expense of Limerick last month made amends for their loss to the Treaty outfit at the same stage of the competition in 2023, but even though they took great confidence from this game, McQuade is aware that her side will likely need to produce an even bigger display in order to overcome Louth.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge, Louth are an amazing team. They’ve had a good campaign here, they’re just down from intermediate. We’re looking forward to the challenge, but we’re not going into this thinking that we have it,” McQuade concluded.