Orla believes Clann can hit form at the right time again

By Kevin Egan

From the outside looking in, it was the type of ‘plot’ that you might expect to see in one of the handicap races at Kilbeggan this coming Saturday.

A draw with St Dominic’s, a last-ditch one-point win over Éire Óg, and then the infamous 9-13 to 5-6 hammering at Kiltoom; if there was such a thing as preserving a good handicap rating for the final, Clann na nGael would have been found guilty by any stewards’ enquiry.

But for those in the dressing room, the only ones who really would have had any insight into what was going on – was that the case, or was it just an example of a wily group pulling a third championship victory in four seasons out of the fire?

Orla McManus (formerly O'Neill, Orla is now married to Roscommon footballer John McManus) has seen and done it all in a long career with club and county, and she saw both sides of the equation in 2024 as well, missing out on most of the first half of the season before coming back in and finding her stride, culminating in her collecting Player of the Match honours in the final.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent at the launch of the 2025 Dermot Hughes Cars Senior Championship, she said that more by accident than design, the lengthy injury list in Johnstown at the start of the season stood to them as time went on.

“I think having some of the senior players out early in the season probably gave the younger girls a chance to establish themselves as senior players, and they got a lot of game time throughout the league.

They carried us through the league, all the way through the start of the championship, and then some of the more mature players, like myself, came back later in the season," she said.

“Those players had established their positions, and they really came on in their play, their confidence and leadership skills, so I think that really played a part. For all the seasoned players like Jenny Shine and myself, there were some players there that never started for us before and ended up playing the full county final, players like Ava Gavin who was just 16.

“I think that gave them a good chance, but also it gave the team a boost, maybe mentally more so than actually on the pitch as well.”

Such had been St Brigid’s dominance in the group stages of the championship that a lot of teams might have been overwhelmed by falling behind in the final.

That was never likely to befall this Clann group, however. “Since I've been playing senior, probably the last ten years, we've been getting to county finals nearly every year and we've seen everything. Our first county final that we won, we were down by seven or eight points to Kilbride, came back and won it. We've lost, we've won, we've done everything, and a lot of those players are still there that have been through all of that,” said Orla.

The early signs in 2025 are that the county champions are following a similar ‘rope-a-dope’ approach. One win in six games, culminating in a landslide defeat to Boyle, would normally be cause for concern. But McManus believes that things are coming together in advance of their championship opening in Loughglynn this Sunday against Éire Óg.

“We had an in-house game recently and it's a huge difference to see the county players come back. And some of the girls were playing brilliant stuff for Roscommon this year, Megan (Kelly) and Róise and Caoimhe Lennon. But we also have players that weren't playing at the start of the year, a lot of us have been around for a long time and I think people need a break as well. We have Ruth Finlass coming back as well, she just had a baby recently.

“It's the same in football every year. You have people coming, you have people going and it's just the nature of the beast, but I think we're definitely hitting our stride now.”