CAMOGIE ALL-IRELAND FINAL:SUNDAY MARKS the 80th All Ireland camogie final in Croke Park as reigning champions Wexford aim to win a league and championship double back-to-back for the first time in their history.
For any sporting body to survive those number of years is remarkable, but to actually make strides marks it out even more so. Thus, a mouth-watering repeat of last year’s final is a fitting way to mark the occasion.
It will see the champions hoping to attain the status that eludes so many – greatness. Last Sunday an excellent Tipperary team bidding to do likewise fell short to a great Kilkenny team and Wexford captain Ursula Jacob took note.
“Well some people are comparing it to last Sunday and there is naturally some talk of winning back-to-back All-Irelands but everyone on the panel is just focused on ourselves and the game in hand. It’s not like we are saying, ‘Oh we will be called a great team if we win’. We are a good team and have done well in recent years but in my opinion, even without winning All-Irelands, Galway are a great team,” says the All Star.
Of course, Wexford have been highly prominent in recent years and this is down to keeping the core of the team according to Jacob. “We have been lucky enough in the last two or three years in that we haven’t lost any players so we had the chance to go on a good streak between league and championship.”
Four weeks ago in the semi-finals the captain put in a player of the match performance as did Galway midfielder Niamh Kilkenny. However, with both sides full of talent, Oulart-the-Ballagh’s finest doesn’t expect any extra attention.
“Both teams have lots of brilliant players so I don’t think it would be a case of focusing on the likes of me or Niamh Kilkenny. We have played each other so much in recent years that we know each other and there are lots of players to watch. We need to just go out and play to the best of our ability instead of focusing on stopping certain players.”
If the star forward does manage to lift the O’Duffy Cup she will become the third player from her club to do so since Wexford’s breakthrough in 2007 as Mary Leacy hoisted the cup before her sister, Una, did likewise last year.
“It was a great honour to be nominated by the club after we won the county championship but at this stage it is not about personal honours, it’s about all of us performing on Sunday first and foremost. It’s a case of worrying about the game before anything else.”
The Jacob family are steeped in hurling and big sister Helena and brother Rory are always on hand for a bit of moral encouragement of sorts.
“Helena is in goal for the intermediates and also is sub ’keeper for the seniors so we will both be there on the day. We don’t get to play in Croke Park that often whereas Rory has so it’s always nice to get advice from a different perspective, although to be honest it tends to be more slagging between us than advice,” admits the Wexford captain.
Earlier in the week all three panellists on RTE’s The Committee Room tipped Galway but this has no bearing inside the Wexford dressing room as Jacob says, “It’s totally irrelevant to the teams at the moment what is being said. It can be interesting sometimes to listen to opinions but it’s two teams on the pitch that decide it.”
Before the senior final senior boss JJ Doyle will hope to guide Wexford to an intermediate crown as they take on Antrim.
Another monumental day for camogie throws in at noon as Down and Waterford contest the junior decider.
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