Mourneabbey have experienced plenty of heartbreak at this stage.
They’ve mastered Cork, and they’ve mastered Munster over the last few years but there was something about the All-Ireland.
Five Cork and Munster championships in a row meant they had plenty of opportunities, but the northwest county Cork club never took them.
They suffered narrow final losses in 2014 and 2015 and they were subjected to that familiar dejection of falling at the final hurdle again in 2017. All of these surrounding a 2016 semi-final loss.
But they kept on coming back.
The women of Mourneabbey know hurt by this stage and they had it bottled for 2018. After coasting through Cork and onto Munster glory again, Shane Ronayne’s charges had their eyes on the big one.
And on a windy Saturday evening in Parnell Park, they weren’t in the mood for letting that opportunity to pass them by again.
Doireann O’Sullivan, the sharpest shooter in ladies football set the tone with two fine points in the first two minutes of the game and neither she nor Mourneabbey would look back from there.
She continued this inspired form right through under the lights in Donnycarney and she ended her evening with six points, three of the finest from open play.
She was aided and abetted by her sister Ciara, another enjoying the big occasion while Laura Fitzerald was another who impressed.
In the end, they won out comfortably on a final scoreline of 1-13 to 1-7 and that woman Doireann O’Sullivan summed up what this win meant for her club with an emotional post-match interview on TG4.
“It’s actually a dream come true. We’ve waited five years for this, I know it’s a cliche but you actually can’t put it into words,” she said.
“We were sick of losing, we had a never say die attitude. We said enough is enough, we’ve put so much into football and today we said it was time to take back,” she said.
Agallamh le Laoch na hImeartha Doireann O'Sullivan ó @MourneabbeyLFC
Sár Cluiche aici! @CorkLGFA #ProperFan#LGFAClubs pic.twitter.com/z8huCwLrmi— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) December 8, 2018
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