AIB All-Ireland senior club final replay
Athenry (Galway) v St Finbarr's (Cork), Semple Stadium, 5.15pm.
TV
Watch the All-Ireland final replay on Saturday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
RADIO
Follow updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
ONLINE
Follow the final via a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport.
WEATHER
Saturday will see plenty of dry and sunny weather but quite cold. Highest temperatures of 2 to 6 degrees in light to moderate northwesterly breezes.
Music buffs know all about the conundrum of the difficult second album. Film sequels don't always deliver either. How to follow up a ground-breaking, breathtaking work of art that made people get up off their feet, elated and stunned, and wanting more?
And so too, the reputation of sporting replays is not great.
Yet Nirvana came up with Nevermind, and Radiohead delivered The Bends. Francis Ford Coppola followed up Godfather with Godfather Part II, James Cameron gave us Aliens in the wake of the stunning Ridley Scott-directed Alien 2.
Replays are less frequent now in Gaelic games, with matches tending to be decided on the day but there is no reason to believe that Athenry and St Finbarr’s will not provide us with as much incident, high-class fare and shuddering intensity in Thurles tomorrow as they did at Croke Park before Christmas, even though for much of that, the Barrs looked to be seeing out the game in a highly professional, controlled manner.
In the end, the sides could not be separated as Kayla Madden equalised with the last stroke of the sliotar for Athenry.
That completed a stunning comeback as the Galwegians had trailed by six points after Eimear Hurley, who played in goals for Dublin during the summer before transferring back home, split the posts with an excellent score in the 55th minute, after coming off the bench. Her sister Ciara, who made some smart stops, has custodian duties for the Togher outfit.
With Méabh Cahalane (pictured above giving chase to Athenry's Therese Donohue), captain Stephanie Punch and Aisling Egan resolute in defence, the Barrs had held the team that accounted for All-Ireland champions Sarsfields in the Galway decider to just nine points, and time almost up.
At the other end, Sorcha McCartan was deadly from frees, regardless of distance, while Nicole Olden had slotted three from play in the first half.
Athenry skipper, Dervla Higgins was having a right old battle with Orlaith Cahalane though, managing to restrict the artistic playmaker to two points and even more importantly, from pulling the strings that have made the Togher side’s attack so dangerous all year.
But the westerners’ offensive unit just was not able to make any real inroads. Kerri O’Driscoll pointed twice in the first half, as did the remarkable Therese Donohue aka Therese Maher.
The 44-year-old mother-of-three finished with three points and had some hand in all but three points of Athenry’s final tally of 1-12.
It was her shot that rebounded off the crossbar for super sub, Anna Jordan to pounce for the 56th minute goal that turned the game right on its head.
Sabina Rabbitte, who had struggled to get involved around the scoring zone, showed all her leadership when converting a difficult free from 55m straight after. Another stalwart, Jessica Gill had a rasper turned around the post by Ciara Hurley for a 45 that Rabbitte converted.
And after Donohue careered through the heart of the Barrs’ defence before being dispossessed, the ball was recycled brilliantly to Madden, who showed remarkable composure and excellent technique to level things up.
Joe Rabbitte and Brian O’Sullivan will have had different challenges as managers of Athenry and St Finbarr’s respectively, in the meantime. Nothing was won or lost and any hint of such notions that may have lingered in either dressing room in the immediate aftermath of the drawn encounter, will need to have been eradicated.
Both camps possess loads of experience and proven depth of character, however.
It would have been easy for Athenry to fall off after finally accounting for their bogey side and winning a first county title since 2009. Sarsfields had won four of the previous six All-Irelands but a couple of goals from Eimear Keane led to their demise, for this season at least.
Olwen Rabbitte tore her ACL at the very end of that game too but despite her absence, Athenry chiselled out a victory over 2023 champions Dicksboro (Kilkenny) in the semi-final, when Gill struck the key goal and 2025 Player of the Year nominee, Higgins excelled.
Remarkably, with an operation scheduled for next week, the younger Rabbitte played the entire 68 minutes or so of the drawn encounter.
The Barrs have been on the brink of defeat a few times. After needing two periods of extra time against Newcastlewest (Limerick) in the provincial semi-final, they were two points Down with time almost gone in the decider against De La Salle (Waterford) when Kate Wall grabbed a goal to crown a spectacular individual performance that yielded 2-04.
Wall was supposed to be in Australia this weekend but the planned lengthy stint of travelling was happily postponed. Her twin brother Philip, lines out for Kilbrittain in the All-Ireland junior club hurling final at Croke Park next Saturday.
The Barrs used up a few more lives in the All-Ireland semi-final when finally overcoming Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim) in the last moments again, of a second period of extra time, Ciara Golden slotting the winner.
It is a bit like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. This time though, something has to give.
