We're treating this as if it is our first final says Glencar Manor's Ailbhe Clancy

Ailbhe Clancy, Glencar Manorhamilton captain and player of the match in Leitrim’s All-Ireland intermediate final win will be looking to lead her team to a famous fifth Leitrim Senior title in a row when they face off against St Joseph's this Sunday.

The final marks a repeat of last year’s decider where Glencar Manorhamilton narrowly beat St Joseph's by a point to clinch four in a row: “There’s a kind of good healthy rivalry between us. I think all the teams in Leitrim senior level are pretty competitive so it is good to have that in the county.”

This will be the fifth time in the last ten years that these clubs meet in the final. St Joseph's were the last team to defeat Glencar Manorhamilton in a county final, beating them in the 2019 and 2018 deciders, they will be gunning to do the same again on Sunday.

  “I think we are ready for it, we have been working hard this year, we have a new team with a lot of younger players coming in, and they have done really really well,” says Clancy.

While St Joseph's are eager to topple the north Leitrim dynasty that the Manor women are building, the champions are keeping their motivation fresh heading into the clash according to their captain: “We are telling ourselves, this is a new team so we haven’t won, we have a lot of new faces and girls coming in, so we are treating this as if it is our first (final) again. So yeah we just want to keep going and push on.”

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN FOR LEITRIM ON TG4 LGFA TEAM OF THE INTERMEIDATE CHAMPIONSHIP

The north Leitrim women have had a very successful period, winning a Connacht Intermediate Club title in 2020 and reaching the Connacht Senior Club Final in 2021, alongside their four county championship wins in a row.

When a team is as winning as Glencar Manorhamilton has been, questions can arise about keeping the competitive flames lit, but for Clancy the young girls that are emerging in Glencar Manorhamilton are pushing the team on: “We are just treating this like we have never won before because there are younger girls that push us on as well, so it is important to keep it going for them as well.”

More than that, the senior championship has gotten more and more competitive which is something that motivates her team, says Clancy “We just really really enjoy it and I suppose when you have the competitive teams like Kiltubrid and now St Mary's, you want to keep pushing on and staying on top, they kind of bring that edge that helps to keep us focused.”

Clancy has played in half a dozen championship finals in her career, and though she still strikes the figure of a fiery competitor, she feels her attitude towards football has changed somewhat.

“I think I am just a bit more present in the last few years with my football in understanding that winning is great and everything but that is not why I play football … the last few years I have really tried to make move of an effort to get more young girls, and more woman out playing football”

“We still want to go out and win, and I still want to go out and win, but at the end of the day there are a lot more things going on.  We want to win and we want to be champions of Leitrim again, so we still have that competitive edge to us. I suppose you are just going in with a relaxed mindset and just going out to play football and to do your best”

Among the sub-plots of this final, there hangs the opportunity for players on both sides to do a rare double in the ranks of Leitrim football - winning with the club and with the county. 

Clancy, the TG4 LGFA Team of the Intermediate Championship  corner forward, will lead a formidable Glencar Manorhamilton team into the final, one that will include four members of the Leitrim’s All-Ireland winning team - Muireann Devaney, Leah Fox, Ailbhe herself and panelist Aoibh Treanor - along with former county stars, like Rebecca Rooney.

 “I would be delighted to win with the county and then win again with the club would be amazing, so hopefully, fingers crossed,” says Clancy, but she stresses, “It’s not really something that I think about to be honest, that's in the past now, when I go back to the club I am a Manor player and nothing else.”