Page 7 - Adult Finals Programme

Last year’s absence from county final day should dictate that there will be no complacency from
Inagh-Kilnamona who following a heartbreaking extra-time reverse to the Blues in 2015, bounded back
with the next three McMahon Cups, all against Newmarket by an average margin of three points.
Add in last year’s decider defeat to Scariff-Ogonnelloe and it may be Newmarket’s 15th final in 20 years
but having been out of the winners’ enclosure since 2015, avoiding a fifth successive final defeat at all
costs is simply a prerequisite.
So for all their eight titles since the dawn of the millennium (2001, ’02, ’03, ’05, 2010, ’11, ’13 and ’15),
reclaiming the McMahon Cup this afternoon would arguably be the greatest achievement of them all
considering the persistent heartbreak that they’ve had to endure over the past few seasons.
Nothing but their optimum will suffice though as the Blues haven’t exactly saved their best for last in
recent seasons. That was particularly evidenced last autumn when a rousing extra-time semi-final victory
over Truagh-Clonlara wasn’t replicated in the final.
Newmarket did perform the better of the two in this season’s last four ties a fortnight ago but they will
need to prove that it wasn’t their county final just to reach an actual one this time around.
Indeed, those semi-finals taught us very little that we didn’t already know about these ever-impressive
senior sides. Character, resilience, defiance and strength-in-depth are all regular terms used to describe
Inagh-Kilnamona and Newmarket on a frequent basis.
And that’s what makes today’s ultimate duel so difficult to call as these arch-rivals are more similar than
they would ever care to admit.
Experience and winning know-how is there in abundance while the spines of both sides are packed full of
inter-county stars past and present. For Inagh-Kilnamona, captain Clare Hehir, Fiona Lafferty, Andrea
O’Keeffe, Amy Keating and Aoife Keane are their go-to players for inspiration and perspiration while
Newmarket’s influential performers include the McMahon sisters Roisin and Laura, Carol O’Leary, Aine
O’Brien and Aimee McInerney while newer imports Lorraine Bible and Clodagh O’Halloran have also
made a significant impact.
With practically nothing between them, the ultimate separator in their recent succession of final
meetings has been the element of surprise. A tactical alteration or positional switch that has invariably
given Inagh-Kilnamona the edge and put Newmarket on the backfoot. So it will be interesting to see what
rabbit will be pulled out of the hat and who the magician will actually be this afternoon?
Such is the heightened rivalry between Inagh-Kilnamona and Newmarket-on-Fergus that this will be a
truly glorious victory to celebrate but a flooringly crushing defeat to take whichever way the pendulum of
fortune swings in the wafer-thin balance of power between these current superpowers.

McMahon Senior Cup Captains

Clare Hehir - Inagh Kilnamona

Aimee McInerney - Newmarket on

Fergus

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Clare Camogie Adult Finals 2020