Manager not surprised by Leitrim school’s historic All-Ireland victory

Character and resilience as much as the undoubted technical ability of his players were key to St Clare’s CS Manorhamilton’s victory in Wednesday’s FAI Schools Senior B Girls National Cup Final according to their manager Anthony McDonald who hailed the performance of his players.

“Delighted for the girls, delighted for everyone, the school, myself,” Anthony told the Observer when asked what it felt like winning an All-Ireland title before adding “But I’m not surprised either, they are a great group. 

“Technically, on the ball, football wise, we had a lot of very good footballers but obviously finals aren’t always won with that. That is the other side of it - once we got on that bus today and once we got warmed up,  their attitude was top class. It is great winning any game, winning an All-Ireland Final doesn’t happen that often so I’ll cherish this one.”

The St Clare’s teacher paid tribute to the dedication of the players, particularly after coming back from losing last year’s Connacht Final, a defeat that set up them for ultimate glory in 2024! “We lost the Connacht Final last year with them, pretty much the exact same team, missing one player from that team. 

“The goal was to win Connacht and when you get that, you get that wee bit greedy, you set your standards high and they deserve this. They put in huge work, even the last few weeks, we put in a couple of training sessions, sacrificed a bit, especially the Leaving Cert girls who have different things going on including mocks, and the three of them had massive, massive games today.”

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St Clare’s opted to play against the strong wind coursing straight down of Athlone Town Stadium, a tactical decision Anthony believes would play to his team’s strength: “They asked ‘what did I want to do, play against it, play with it?’ and I said play against it, you’re a footballing team, it actually might suit you, it will settle you playing against the wind.

“You can’t kick it long, you have to keep the ball down and actually they started so strong and after two minutes when you get a goal, it’s great. The disappointing thing was we played so well for 35 minutes and then to get hit with that sucker punch before halftime. Sometimes that can take it out of you too but they started the second half really well, creating chances, half chances albeit.

“At times I felt is it going to be one of those days, it is 1-1, we’re playing a lot of football, you need to take these chances when you have them and we got the goal at a really, really good time because we had exerting 15, 20 minutes of energy, nothing came out of it.”

Megan Rooney’s goal was the vital breakthrough and Anthony revealed that the winger had overcome injury to line out in the final: “A fabulous finish, I was delighted for Megan, really, really footballer. She missed the All-Ireland semi-final with an injury, just made it back for the game so really, really happy for her.”

Anthony was delighted with what the win would do for St Clare’s but also for the clubs who produced the players through their underage systems: “It is massive for the school, even the profile of the school, the publicity it brings. Over the last two weeks, what it brings - people talk about enrollment nights and things like that but that is you’re enrollment there. 

“It is great for everyone involved, parents, girls, teachers - all those girls have put an awful lot of effort in at underage level on the club scene, Manor Rangers, Dromahair, that is where they come from ultimately so it is massive for them.

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“What happens at the underage scene is a lot of them girls will go into Rovers academy and the underage teams can suffer from that so it is brilliant for them to come back together at a school level. To be able to achieve together with the girls you have grown up with is massive.”