Eoghan Rua set for glory

Eoghan Rua camogs return in Croke Park this Sunday aiming to create history by clinching back to back All-Ireland Intermediate Club titles.

Twelve months ago they achieved the incredible feat of winning their first ever All-Ireland title defeating Offaly side The Harps at GAA Headquarters in Dublin. Many’s a team might settle at that, but not this one. They reclaimed their Derry county title back at the end of the summer and went on to retain the Ulster Senior B title and so embarked once again on the All-Ireland trail.

Last month’s Semi Final saw them pitted against the very opposition they defeated in last year’s decider in the semi-finals and once again they proved they are one, if not the best, intermediate side in the country, defeating The Harps for the second successive year. Now Galway and Connacht champions Ardrahan stand in their way of a truly unbelievable achievement that many can only dream about.

Manager Joe Passmore has paid tribute to his players who have put in a sterling amount of work over the past 24 months in reaching this decider for the second year in a row.
“The girls put in an extraordinary effort to go from the previous January [2010] right through to last March,” he said. “The question was, were they game to go again? They showed a fierce appetite to give this all another shot.”

With all the talking off the field and all the training almost done, it’s now up to the players come Sunday afternoon to put in the performance of their lives, and that’s something Passmore knows about only too well.
“It’s up to us to put in the performance. We can’t control anything about Ardrahan but we can control everything about ourselves and we have to try and get ourselves as right as possible.”

Captain Méabh McGoldrick, who had led her team superbly all season, said the team are going to Croke Park on Sunday to win.
“There’s a bunch of girls there who want to don’t want to rest on 2011, who want to keep on going, and Joe and Brendan , they have kept pushing us on.
“It’s a lot easier to keep going for as long as we have when you have the end prize of playing in Croke Park and the chance to win an All-Ireland title,” she added.