When Down finally won the All-Ireland intermediate camogie championship in 2020, they were grateful for the craft and toil of forward duo Niamh Mallon and Sorcha McCartan.
Mallon, a generational talent in the Mourne County’s attack, struck 2-3 in their final win over neighbours Antrim while McCartan added a point and wore out her GPS unit with hard running.
Would Down have landed that first title since 1998 without the duo? Almost certainly not.
But they also couldn’t hold on to their most gifted performers and while a Division 2 league title followed in 2021 — the pair scored 2-7 between them in that final — McCartan’s relocation to Cork resulted in her transferring to play for the Rebelettes in 2022.
The daughter of 1994 All-Ireland football winner Greg McCartan, played for Cork in the 2022 and 2023 senior camogie finals and will be expected to feature again in this Sunday’s showpiece.
This puts her on an unlikely Croke Park collision course with one of her own, former Down colleague Mallon, who has lit it up out west since making her mid-season intercounty switch to Galway.
Mallon’s transfer to the Sarsfields club went through last spring and she made her intercounty debut as a substitute in April’s National League final against Tipperary.
In her very first play as a Galway player, she scored a point, added two more and was fouled for two frees. Tipperary still won by a point but were mightily relieved to do so.
Using that individual cameo as a springboard to greater gains, the former All-Star nominee struck 10 points on her championship debut against Dublin and has reached the All-Ireland decider with 3-20 in all from the six wins that Galway have enjoyed, 3-14 of which has come from play.
Two of her goals came against Clare during Galway’s group stage demolition of the Banner, a day when she collected 2-4 in total and was named Player of the Match.
No wonder Galway captain Róisín Black, referencing the impact of Mallon at this week’s launch of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland camogie finals, along with the continued excellence of players like Carrie Dolan and Aoife Donohue, bigged up their attacking threat.
“I’ve been marking them in training, I’m well aware of their potential and their talent,” said full-back Black. “We’re very lucky that we have a great spread of forwards.”
Yet gifted attackers are no guarantee of All-Ireland success, as Mallon is only too aware. The nutritionist was part of Galway’s senior football backroom team this year and must have winced watching gifted duo Shane Walsh and Damien Comer shoot blanks on All-Ireland final day against Armagh.
Two Sundays on, and a week since the Galway ladies footballers lost to Kerry in their final, the camogie team will have the opportunity to make it third time lucky. As Mallon told Galway Bay FM after striking 1-2 in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Tipp, this wasn’t a situation she envisaged being in.
“This wasn’t on my radar at all,” she said. “It wasn’t on my radar six months ago never mind 12 months ago but things fell into place and it’s been a mad kind of whirlwind couple of months. But here we are. It’s just another game now that we have to go and win.”
Galway are up against it though. For all the firepower they possess, Cork perhaps have even more. Amy O’Connor, who struck 3-7 in last year’s final, will fancy wreaking more havoc while the four goals Cork put past Dublin in their semi-final win brought to 17 the number of majors they have registered in six games.
McCartan brings her own unique threat to the Cork attack, netting in last year’s final defeat of Waterford as well as in that more recent Dublin game, when she came on as a sub.
She initially commuted back and forth to play for Down after a work placement brought her to Cork before transferring permanently.
“She’s very athletic, very dedicated,” said her Dad, 1994 Down All-Ireland winner Greg. “You won’t find a more dedicated player I’d say. She could be training nearly twice a day at times, two or three hours a day between skills, running and everything else that goes into it. She’s just got something in her that embraces it.”
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