Preview: TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Finals

By Jackie Cahill

The 2024 TG4 All-Ireland Junior, Intermediate and Senior champions will be crowned on Sunday.

The action gets underway at Croke Park with the Junior Final between Fermanagh and Louth at 11.45am, followed by the Intermediate Final pairing of Leitrim and Tyrone at 1.45pm.

At 4.15pm, all eyes will be on the Senior Final, as Galway and Kerry, the 2022 and 2023 runners-up, lock horns.

All three games are live on TG4 and tickets are available via Ticketmaster by clicking here.

Sunday August 4^th, 2024

TG4 All-Ireland Junior Final – Live on TG4

Fermanagh v Louth, 11.45am

A third title for Fermanagh, or Louth’s fourth?

All will be revealed at Croke Park as the counties clash in the 2024 TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship Final.

This fixture is a repeat of the 2019 decider, won by Louth at Croke Park, and the Wee County will aim to get their hands on the West County Hotel Cup for the first time since then.

Standing in their way are Fermanagh, winners in 2017 and 2020, and runners-up in 2022 and in that 2019 decider.

This will be Fermanagh’s fifth Junior Final, as Louth gear up for their seventh.

The history books show that Louth were winners first in 1998, followed by successes in 2015 and 2019.

They’ve also lost three Finals, in 2018, 2012 and 2010, and both counties on Sunday have a 50 per cent success rate in All-Ireland Junior Finals.

Louth didn’t feature in the race for promotion from Division 3 of the Lidl National League, but they did preserve third-tier status, while Fermanagh’s quest to get out of Division 4 was ended at the semi-final stage.

Since then, both teams have built up a summer head of steam and they arrive at Croke Park as champions in their respective provinces.

Fermanagh got the better of Derry to lift the Ulster title, as Louth prevailed over Carlow in the Leinster decider.

Moving on to the All-Ireland series, Fermanagh and Louth were impressive during the group stages.

Fermanagh won all four of their games to top Group A, as Louth won their three Group B fixtures to finish on top of the pile.

That set up a semi-final for Fermanagh against Limerick, with the Erne County gaining revenge against the Shannonsiders after losing at the same stage last year, as Louth met Carlow again, in a repeat of the Leinster Final, and with the same outcome.

Heading into Sunday’s game, the star turn for Fermanagh this season has been Eimear Smyth.

The Derrygonnelly Harps star, one of the very best in the business, has amassed an incredible tally of 7-39 in the All-Ireland series to date and in the race for the 2024 ZuCar Golden Boot award, the prize for the top scorer across the Senior, Intermediate and Junior grades, she’s now uncatchable.

Second on the list of top scorers in the Junior grade is another vastly-experienced forward, Louth’s Kate Flood, who captained her county to All-Ireland glory in 2019.

Flood has scored 4-13 en route to Croke Park during the All-Ireland campaign and she’s a player that Fermanagh will need to keep a close eye on.

Both sides have plenty of class elsewhere, however, with strong defensive performances also a feature to date, but scoring prowess will win the day.

In that regard, Niamh Rice (2-15) and Eimear Byrne (4-4) have been other excellent performers for Louth, while Bláithín Bogue (2-9) is another key star in Fermanagh’s ranks.

It’s all set up for a cracking opening game at Croke Park, with the action getting underway at 11.45am.

Supporters would be well advised to arrive early as this one could go right down to the wire.

Louth were relegated from the Intermediate grade last year and will be keen to bounce back at the first attempt, while Fermanagh were relegated from Junior in 2021, and have been aiming to get back to the Intermediate grade since then.

Both teams are well prepared and battle-hardened as they prepare for what lies in store on Sunday, and with proven match-winners in their ranks, and players who have already delivered on big days.

It remains to be seen now whether it’s Fermanagh’s Shannan McQuade or her Louth counterpart, Áine Breen, who will climb the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the trophy and spark wild celebrations.

Fermanagh are unchanged from their semi-final victory over Limerick, as Louth make two changes to the side that saw off Carlow.

Holly Lambe Sally and Lucy White come into the starting line-up, with Anna Whyte and Mischa Rooney dropping to the bench.

Fermanagh: M Maguire; C Clarke, M McGloin, E Keenan; S McQuade (capt.), C Murphy, C Bogue; B Bannon, L Maguire; D Maguire, J Doonan, A McCabe; B Bogue, E Smyth, B Smyth.

Louth: R Lambe Fagan; L Byrne, E Murray, E Hand; H Lambe Sally, Á Breen (capt.), C Nolan; A Halligan, E Byrne; L White, A Russell, C McDonald; N Rice, K Flood, S Matthews.

TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Final – Live on TG4

Leitrim v Tyrone, 1.45pm

SUNDAY’S TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Finalists, Leitrim and Tyrone, are both aiming to lift the Mary Quinn Memorial Cup for the second time.

The trophy is named after the late Mary Quinn, a Leitrim LGFA legend, and the county was successful in the 2007 Final against Wexford, which was their only previous appearance in this competition Final.

Tyrone are gearing up for their third Intermediate decider, having contested the 2017 Final against Tipperary, before bouncing back from that heartbreak to win a year later against Meath.

On all known form, Sunday’s Final promises to be a tight affair. The teams know plenty about each other, too, as they met in the group stages of this year’s competition.

In Ballinamore in early June, Leitrim recorded a famous 4-12 to 5-8 victory, in what was a quite outstanding game.

The prospects looked bleak for Leitrim in the early stages when they went 0-0 to 2-2 behind but they rallied superbly to win.

On the day, Ailbhe Clancy scored 2-5, team captain Michelle Guckian chipped in with 1-5, and Muireann Devaney added 1-1.

On the Tyrone side, the prodigiously talented Sorcha Gormley, captain of the county’s U-18 side that contested the ZuCar All-Ireland B Final last weekend, registered 2-3.

Maria Canavan was another key player for the Red Hands on the day, notching 1-4.

All of the aforementioned players will have key roles to play on Sunday and their respective performances will go a long way towards deciding the end result.

Clancy (3-13), Guckian (1-18), Devaney (4-6) and Laura O’Dowd (1-9) are Leitrim’s leading scorers to date in the All-Ireland series, while Gormley (3-4) is the leading markswoman for Tyrone, followed closely by Aoife Horisk (3-3), and Chloe McCaffrey and Maria Canavan (both 1-8).

Both counties have done really well to reach Croke Park, Leitrim coming through having won the Connacht title earlier in the season, while Tyrone shrugged off the disappointment of losing the Ulster semi-final to launch a strong All-Ireland Championship challenge.

Tyrone have already appeared at Croke Park this year – and will that Lidl National League Division 2 Final against Kildare stand to them?

It was a disappointing defeat for Tyrone on the day but promotion to Division 1 of the Lidl National League for 2025 had already been secured, while despite a strong showing in the group stages, Leitrim’s bid for promotion from Division 4 came unstuck in the semi-finals.

Along with the coveted silverware at stake, the other huge carrot for the winners is Senior Championship football next year.

If Tyrone get the job done, they’ll join Armagh and Donegal in the 2025 Ulster Senior Championship, while Leitrim would be pitting their wits against Galway and Mayo.

Both teams have navigated difficult paths to Croke Pak and now it’s all on the line over 60 minutes.

Leitrim repeated their Connacht Final win over Roscommon in the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate quarter-final, before getting the better of a fancied Wexford outfit in the semi-final. That result was noteworthy as Wexford had won when the counties met in the 2023 quarter-final.

Tyrone were also handed tough tasks, overcoming last year’s runners-up, Clare, in what was a stand-out quarter-final result, before getting past the challenge of Ulster champions Down in the last four. Progress for Tyrone in the Championship has been considerable this year, when you consider that they were well beaten by champions Kildare at the quarter-final stage in 2023.

Now, the big question is, who will prevail? And will it be Leitrim’s Michelle Guckian or Tyrone’s Aoibhinn McHugh climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the Mary Quinn Memorial Cup when play has concluded?

The stage is set and if this Final is anything like the game they produced in early June, we’re in for a treat.

Leitrim are unchanged following their semi-final win, as Tyrone make two changes to the team that accounted for Down.

Maebh Mallon and Zoe Loughran come into the starting line-up, in place of Ella McNamee and Emma Conroy.

Leitrim: M Monaghan; E Quigley, C Tyrrell, C Owens; S Reynolds, K Bruen, E Bruen; N Tighe, M Guckian (capt.); O Flynn, L O’Dowd, M Devaney; A Clancy, S Quinn, Á Redican.

Tyrone: A Coyle; J Lyons, J Barrett, E Quinn; C Daly, M Corrigan, C Campbell; A McHugh (capt.), M Mallon; Á Grimes, A Horisk, E.J. Gervin; C McCaffrey, Z Loughran, M Canavan.

TG4 All-Ireland Senior Final – Live on TG4

Galway v Kerry, 4.15pm

FOR the very first time, Galway and Kerry will lock horns in a TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Final.

These are two teams very much here on merit – and with huge levels of motivation.

The quest for Galway is to land the Brendan Martin Cup for the first time since 2004, while Kerry’s wait for glory stretches back to 1993.

Galway’s last appearance in a Senior decider was back in 2019, when they lost out to Dublin, while Kerry have been runners-up for the past two seasons, and the Kingdom will be desperately keen to avoid an unwanted hat-trick.

When the counties met this year in Division 1 of the Lidl National League, Kerry came out on top but now the stakes are at their highest as they renew acquaintances.

In 2023, they locked horns at Croke Park in a Lidl National League Division 1 Final, won comfortably by Kerry, while their last Senior Championship meeting was back in 2022, when Kerry won in the group stages.

For Galway, reaching the Final represents significant progress and huge strides have been taken since quarter-final defeats in 2023 and 2022, and relegation from Division 1 of the Lidl National League this year.

Galway regrouped following that League disappointment to land the Connacht title and now they’re within 60 minutes of a first All-Ireland title in 20 years.

The Tribeswomen lost out to Cork in the group stages of the All-Ireland series but after beating Laois to advance, they scalped Dublin and Cork in the knockout stages to reach Croke Park.

Kerry, for their part, bounced from the disappointment of losing the Lidl NFL Division 1 Final to Armagh as they conquered Munster for the first time since 2017, and they’re unbeaten in the All-Ireland Championship series.

Alongside Cork, with 11 titles each, Kerry have won this competition more times than any other county, as they get ready for a 15^th Senior Final.

A win would move them out in front on the overall roll of honour – and in the LGFA’s 50^th year.

Victory for Galway would secure just a second TG4 All-Ireland crown, as they get set for a fifth Final appearance.

The two teams appear to be peaking at the perfect time and now the scene is set for a potential classic.

Looking for potential match-winners, Galway pair Olivia Divilly and Róisín Leonard are both in a rich vein of form.

In the TG4 All-Ireland Senior championship series, they are the competition’s joint-leading scorers, Divilly on 3-16, while Leonard has contributed 4-13.

Both have been superb of late, as has inspirational captain, Ailbhe Davoren (3-2 in the All-Ireland series), and in the victories over Dublin and Cork, Leonard contributed a combined 3-8.

On the Kerry side, Danielle O’Leary is her side’s leading scorer in the All-Ireland series, with 1-8.

Evergreen Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh has 0-9 on the board and while this hasn’t been the most prolific of seasons for the Corca Dhuibhne star, she could explode on the big day.

Emma Dineen (1-5) and Síofra O’Shea (1-4), who’s now thankfully returned to full fitness following a serious knee injury, are other players who will be hoping to contribute to the Kerry scoring tally.

Sunday’s game could be a classic, with two teams excellent defensively but also possessing players from midfield up with magical scoring talent.

Their respective semi-final victories were cagey affairs for the most part but the old saying goes that semi-finals are for winning, no matter how it’s done.

So, which county’s long famine will end on Sunday, and will it be Kerry’s Niamh Carmody or Galway’s Ailbhe Davoren hoisting the Brendan Martin Cup skywards?

All will be revealed in the 51^st All-Ireland Senior Championship Final, as Kerry go with an unchanged starting line-up, while Emma Reaney replaces Ailish Morrissey on the Galway team, in the only change in personnel.

Galway: D Gower; M Jordan, S Ní Loingsigh, K Geraghty; A Ní Cheallaigh, N Ward, C Cooney; M Glynn, A Davoren (capt.); O Divilly, L Ward, N Divilly; E Reaney, L Coen, R Leonard.

Kerry: C Butler; E Lynch, K Cronin, C Murphy; A O’Connell, D Kearney, A Dillane; M O’Connell, A Galvin; N Carmody (capt.), N Ní Chonchúir, S O’Shea; D O’Leary, E Dineen, L Ní Mhuircheartaigh.