There are days when all logic is lost and the unpredictable glory of sport wins out. Sunday was such a day. A Kilkenny club won an All-Ireland football title and Athenry staged a camogie comeback for the ages inspired by a 44-year-old mother of three and a Rabbitte playing on one leg.
In Parnell Park, Muckalee made history by beating Cromane of Kerry 1-13 to 2-9 to claim the All-Ireland women’s junior club football title.
It was the first time a Kilkenny club – male or female – had even contested an All-Ireland football decider, so to come away with the silverware was a remarkable achievement.
Along the way to this landmark triumph, Muckalee beat clubs from Wexford, Louth, Dublin, Meath, London, Galway and Kerry. What a story.
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Katie Nolan nailed a free in the closing moments to earn them a one-point victory, after Cromane had wiped out a five-point deficit to draw level with the game entering the final seconds.
“We’re absolutely delighted,” said Muckalee midfielder Laura Greene. “It’s putting Kilkenny football on the map.”
But just as Muckalee were celebrating their historic victory, a few kilometres away in Croke Park Athenry and St Finbarr’s were preparing to serve up a thrilling All-Ireland senior camogie final.
St Finbarr’s, playing in a first-ever final, led 0-15 to 0-9 with four minutes of normal time remaining only to be caught in an Athenry whirlwind, with the Galway champions hitting 1-3 to force a replay on the weekend of January 3rd-4th.
Therese Donohue, 44 years young, rolled back the years to produce a towering performance for Athenry – scoring 0-3 and being involved in a further 1-5 of her team’s scores, including the game-changing goal and Kayla Madden’s equaliser in what was to be the last action of the game.
“Therese has been that way with us all year,” said Athenry manager Joe Rabbitte. “Today, she really stood out with her work rate. It’s very hard to replace players like that.”
And the Athenry manager revealed afterwards that his daughter Olwen played the final alongside her sister, Sabina, despite requiring cruciate knee ligament surgery.
“She did her cruciate a month ago. Amazing, I don’t know what kind of a yoke she is,” said Joe.
“Last Saturday we played [an in-house] game. I was saying, ‘Get out of the tackles, don’t go in there.’ We thought she went well. She came to me afterwards and said, ‘Dad, I’m ready to play.’
“But she has an operation booked for the seventh of January. I saw her out there today, she got knocked and she got turned upside down and she kept getting up.
“She was absolutely brilliant for us in the role she played. Look, it’s about getting back now and keeping my head down because I don’t want to be talking to those surgeons until this game is over.”
Despite the disappointment of seeing victory snatched from their grasp in injury time, St Finbarr’s manager Brian O’Sullivan was remaining positive.
“It is just the nature of how the games goes, it ebbs and flows. We never thought it was in the bag,” he said.
“We will enjoy the Christmas, this is an amateur sport. We’ll regroup, reassess a couple of things and put a plan in place for the replay. We have another crack at it.”
Turkey will still be on the menu for the Rabbittes too, but they’ll be mixing it with some training down the hurling field in Athenry as well.
“This morning before we left the house, myself and Sabina and Olwen stood in front of the Christmas tree and we took a picture,” said Joe Rabbitte.
“We were going to one of the most important games of their lives – and mine too, I suppose. It’s amazing to be playing at this time of the year, isn’t it brilliant, what else would you be at?”
