It's a tale of contrasting traditions in the Domino’s Women’s Super League final at the National Basketball Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Killester are bidding to become the second team in 15 years to defend their title and aiming for their third trophy in 18 months. They're up against Utility Trust St. Paul’s, the team from Killarney competing in their first top tier national final at senior level.
St. Paul’s will also become the first team to get promoted and win the Domino’s Women’s Super League in the following season should they hoist the trophy aloft.
The tale of the tape suggests a tight battle on the horizon. This is the fourth time the sides will meet this season, with the highest margin of victory five points and the record currently standing at 2-1 in favour of the Dubliners.
Utility Trust St. Paul’s will feel as if they owe Killester. Mark Grennell’s side rallied from nine points down to reach the Paudie O’Connor Cup final at the expense of Sunday’s opponents back in January, but St. Paul’s captain Denise Dunlea insists they’ll play without fear come Sunday.
"Quietly confident, to be honest," she said earlier this week. "We’re going in without fear. That’s what we’ve done in our last two games because we’re in bonus territory having just come up from division one last year. We’re just delighted to be here and hopefully we can put in another good performance for our supporters this weekend."
In Dunlea, Lynn Jones and Rheanne O’Shea, head coach James Fleming has players who don’t feel as if they’re just representing themselves or their club, Dunlea says they are representing all of Kerry basketball this weekend.
"It’s massive for the likes of Lynn that she came come up here almost 20 years on from playing in her previous final, with her three young children and have that experience. I mean it’s the whole community in Kerry as well you know there’s a few supporters buses coming, so fingers crossed we can get a result on the day for the people of Killarney and Kerry."
Standing opposite Dunlea will be Irish international Hannah Thornton, who made the move from DCU Mercy to play with Killester this season and has enjoyed the introduction of the play-off system to the Domino’s Women’s Super League this season.
"I think it’s brought an extra kind of fight and an exciting finish to the season," she said. "It’s about not peaking too early at the start of the season and I feel as if we are peaking at the right time now and hopefully that’s how it works out for us."
Killester vanquished a few demons by defeating their Paudie O’Connor Cup final conquerors FloMAX Liffey Celtics in the last four to reach this stage and Thornton indicated that the victory did mean just a little more than usual.
"We were still hurting from the cup final in the semi-final two weeks ago, but we knew what we had to do to try and get the win and we managed to play really well as a team, there was a really big support behind us from Killester and it was a fantastic feeling to get that win."
The 33-year-old isn’t buying into Utility Trust St. Paul’s underdog status too much, however.
"A lot of people have said that (Utility Trust St. Paul’s are a surprise package), but they have played really well this season. They’ve been on a great run so far in the play-offs, have a great combination of Irish players, Americans and Europeans, so they absolutely deserve to in the final.
"They fact we’ve played them three times this year means we can look back and see how to prepare fully for this game that we know it’s going to be a dogfight."
