Connacht title was what St Brigid's Edel Shanley was aiming for all year long

Connacht titles don’t come around Leitrim so often that you might think a Provincial crown is a realistic goal at the start of the year but for St Brigid’s Edel Shanley, lifting the Connacht LGFA Junior Club title last Saturday in Swinford was the realisation of a long held dream.

Speaking after St Brigid’s impressive 2-17 to 3-6 victory over Shamrock Gaels, Edel admitted that a Provincial title was on her list early in the year: “This was the goal, this is what we wanted out of the year - well me personally anyways, this is what I was aiming for. Obviously you needed to win junior in Leitrim and that was a tough battle against Keeldra Gaels.

“But this is what I wanted out of the year, so everything after this is surplus. It was a brilliant team performance. Everyone just put their heart in the line and worked for each other and it was amazing to finally get there after we were here three years ago in 2023 and it's brilliant to get over the line today having that behind us.”

Edel’s ambition came from losing the 2023 Provincial Junior decider to Claremorris and despite the trauma of relegation from the Intermediate grade last year, the Leitrim county player always believed that the club’s rich history would stand to them: “I think we've definitely grown since that year. We were a young team starting out, Brigid’s weren't that long around but I think it stood to us a few years growing.

"The girls getting that experience up at Intermediate and Junior this year, just kind of having those few years under the belt playing adult football. It's a bit of grit and determination there, like it's great seeing like Mam still on the pitch there and we have Mary McKeon and Sinead Quinn who would have played all the years too on the sideline as the water girls, they were giving us encouragement every time, constantly during the breaks and it's just great to have that there and hearing that from the sideline.

“They definitely instilled that in us from when we were young, we have that going forward. I think it's great seeing that as well, especially for like the younger crowd who obviously in previous years as Aughawillan, they've been down this road before but a lot of our girls haven't seen that they were too young.”

Ballinamore’s example in 2023 of winning the Connacht Intermediate title and going all the way to the All-Ireland Final is also a example for St Brigid’s to emulate according to Edel: “It was nice seeing Ballinamore go all the way to the All-Ireland Club Final in 2023, they’re our neighbours and girls you know going through the same thing and you're thinking ‘well they can do it, so can we’ and it's great having that kind of belief there.”

Shamrock Gaels briefly threatened when they took the lead in the first half with two goals in the space of a minute during the first half but Edel revealed she wasn’t really worried, her confidence in her teammates undimmed: “I'm sure worried the crowd and may some players, but personally, no. It wasn't ideal and I didn't want to see it happening but I had faith in our girls and in that we keep the heads down, we keep going.

“We know what we're doing and these things happen - we've done it before, we played Annaduff in the league earlier in the year, we were behind so much of the game but we came through. I think we have that in our heads and in our hearts and we know what it comes down to it, if we keep working we can do it, so that showed today.”