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Oulart the Ballagh's golden generation gunning for one more title

(L-R) Mary Leacy, Ursula Jacob, Una Leacy, Karen Atkinson and Colleen Atkinson celebrate with the O'Duffy Cup in 2012
(L-R) Mary Leacy, Ursula Jacob, Una Leacy, Karen Atkinson and Colleen Atkinson celebrate with the O'Duffy Cup in 2012

Oulart the Ballagh's All-Ireland club senior camogie semi-final win over Slaughtneil felt like a trip down memory lane.

Names like Ursula Jacob and Mary Leacy, key players on Wexford's three in a row All-Ireland winning team from 2010-12, have departed the county scene but are still starring for their club.

Oulart also captured the first of their two All-Ireland club titles to date in 2012, and Shauna Sinnott - A 17-year-old student at the time - estimates that an incredible nine members of that team will try for a third national title against Sarsfields on Saturday (Live on RTÉ2).

She adds Shelly Keogh, Stacey Keogh, Louise Sinnott, Aideen Brennan, Karen Atkinson and Laura Sinnott to the list while quipping "The girls will go mad if I call them old. I'll call them more experienced players.

"The girls are so competitive. They are such a driven team, from one to 26. All of us want to win. There are a few of the girls coming towards the end of their careers. I don't know how they still have the hunger to still be playing. Some of them are playing over 20 years at senior level. It must be the (Wexford) strawberries and the potatoes!

"Some of us started playing with the senior panel when we were 13. It was a completely different time compared to the rules now. I was in fifth year in school when we won our first All-Ireland. I was only 17. I was in college then for the second one in 2014/15. That seems like a long time but it doesn't feel that long ago.

"I suppose we had probably been written off as maybe an ageing team in the last few years. There had been a bit of a gap since we had won any provincial or All-Irelands. But that's not definitely the case, the hunger is definitely still there with all the girls.

"If you look back at the 2011 team, there have been positional changes. We're lucky that most of the players we have are so adaptable. I played wing-back in my first All-Ireland, I was midfield in the second one, and I'm gone up to corner-forward now.

"There are players who can play anywhere on the pitch. It's nice to let the younger ones who have a bit more speed in their legs do the running, and get the ball into us as quick as they can.

"It’s fantastic to be in an another All-Ireland. When the years do go by, you feel like you’re after missing your opportunity to get another one. It’s a bit surreal to be in another one.

"A few of us have won All-Irelands with Wexford. Winning an All-Ireland with your club is something else. There isn't much that you could compare to it. It's just a really special feeling. If we could top it off with another one, it would be fantastic."

Shauna Sinnot will be hoping to have the cup this close on Saturday evening

Saturday's final at Nowlan Park is actually the culmination of the 2020 All-Ireland competition, delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and almost scrapped completely but for the efforts of the likes of Oulart and Sarsfields.

"It was touch and go for a while," admits Sinnott.

"We didn't know if it was going to be played. It was so hard that after training for so long that you're expecting to play it.

"That's the great power of social media, ourselves, a lot of the girls from Sarsfields were trying to get the importance out there of the club championship. It's an amazing competition. If it was brushed aside, I don't think it would be a good reflection on camogie.

"I don't know how we kept going with training. Anything that was asked of the girls, they kept going at it even when there was doubt about whether it was going to be played or not."

Slaughtneil were going for four in a row until Oulart stopped them in their tracks last weekend.

"We were definitely down as underdogs," says Sinnott. "But we didn't look at that too much to be honest. We knew we were going to have a massive battle against Slaughtneil or any team that we were coming up against.

"We knew we were going to have to get a good start and we did. We were up 1-05 after 10 minutes, which was a huge benefit to us then throughout the match."

They might need the same against a Sarsfields outfit featuring the McGrath sisters that led Galway's march to the O'Duffy Cup in September and are the holders.

"They've played in the last three All-Ireland finals and I suppose they probably had that hunger and hurt in the 2019 campaign against Slaughtneil," says Sinnott.

"They are a fantastic side, there's no doubting that and we will show them the respect. They are reigning All-Ireland champions.

"But we're going up there to do our job as well and there are so many of us that know what it takes to win a club All-Ireland. We're going to give it our all on Saturday and there's no doubt it will be an absolute battle between the two of us again."

Watch Sarsfields v Oulart the Ballagh live on RTÉ from 1.15pm Saturday and follow our live blog on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app

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