Preparation done, now it’s all about the performance for St Paul's

Preview – LGFA JFC Final 

THIS time last year, St Paul’s were sitting idle having not been able to fulfil an Intermediate team. On Friday night, they’ll face Killeshin in the Junior Championship final having also reached the league final earlier in the year.

Players Clodagh Brogan and Aoife Langford along with John Langford were speaking ahead of the final at the Laois LGFA media night in the LOETB Portlaoise Institute last Friday evening.

Clodagh Brogan feels that the majority of the work is done and that it’s all about the performance against Killeshin.

“We've been training very hard, we've been putting in the effort. There's a few things that we've identified that we need to work on. I think we've kind of put the head down now. We're concentrating on the big game on Friday night and I think we're all set now once we do what we've been working on on Friday night, I think everything should go well,” Brogan said.

This will be the third meeting of the sides in 2024 with both teams having won and lost a game to date.

“We've played them twice before, we had them in the quarter-finals of the league and then we played them again in the group stages. We've won one, lost one. so we know what we need to do, we know what work we need to put in on Friday night and we're looking forward to it,” she said.

Their semi-final victory over 2023 Junior finalists Portlaoise was ‘very important’ according to Aoife Langford.

“It was very important and like that we met Portlaoise earlier on in the season. We knew exactly how tough that game was going to be. Our main aim was obviously just to get over the line and get to the final,” she said.

The St Paul’s centre back spoke of her side’s belief in themselves and how it’s got them to where they are today.

“I think our biggest positive is that we still have the belief in ourselves. We had two very tough opening games, we had a couple of losses in the league and we still drove on into a league final and now we're here in a championship final as well so it's very positive,” Aoife said.

John Langford gave this reply when asked where he thinks the game will be won and lost in Annanough on Friday evening.

“Not lost, we have a positive attitude that we're out to win and like any other team we're out to win. I suppose if the forwards click, they're going to be hard to be stopped and the two midfielders if they work as well as they did over the last two or three games, I think positive is the way forward,” he said.

St Paul’s have done remarkably well to get to the final this year having not been able to field a team at the Intermediate grade in 2023.

“It's good to go back and rebuild a team again like we did with St Paul's, that's the most important thing. Last year, we couldn't fill an Intermediate team and we went back and started again. It's positive going forward now with our team and hopefully next year we'll be the same. Win, lose or draw this one, it'll be positive for the club as well,” he said.

St Paul’s main aim coming into 2024 was to just get a team together and now they’re in a championship so it’s great for the club.

“It's great, we weren't expecting it at the beginning of the year. We just wanted to get a team together, see what way it works and work from there. Once we started training and the girls started coming back bit by bit, we ended up in the league final. It gave us great motivation to carry on into the championship and sure we're here now,” he said.