WHEN THE MOURNEABBEY ladies football team reconvened for the 2016 season, they knew they had to park the hurt of the previous year before a new campaign could begin.<\/p>\n
A second All-Ireland final had come and gone without the silverware coming back to Cork and thoughts about another shot at All-Ireland glory were understandably in their minds.<\/p>\n
But they knew they couldn\u2019t indulge those notions yet. And as they look towards a third consecutive Munster final today, team captain Br\u00edd O\u2019Sullivan assures The42\u00a0<\/em>that\u00a0their focus remains firmly on the provincial championship.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of spoke about it at the start of the year,\u201d she begins, \u201cand we knew that we were kidding ourselves if we weren\u2019t concentrating on getting out of Cork first and getting out of Munster.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cI\u00a0suppose we\u2019re one-third of the way there after getting past St Val\u2019s (in the county final) and obviously it would be in the back of our minds after the heartache of the last two years, but we\u2019re trying not to think about it because you can\u2019t afford to be thinking too far ahead when you\u2019re coming up against such experienced and good sides, so we\u2019re just going to concentrate on today for now and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Today they face the Banner of Clare, a side who they previously defeated in the 2014 Munster final. But O\u2019Sullivan insists that the outcome of that encounter means nothing ahead of their next meeting.<\/p>\n @MourneabbeyLFC aim to win 3 in a row this weekend in Munster senior titles pic.twitter.com\/aCS13NDCLu<\/p>\n — COS Photography (@COS_Photography) November 3, 2016<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe did play them two years ago but we aren\u2019t really reading anything into that because we\u2019ve both become very different teams since then. There\u2019s different personnel and things like that but they are an excellent team and they\u2019ve a few girls who had success with Clare this year as well, so it will be interesting alright,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n Since that maiden Munster achievement in 2014, Mourneabbey have collected two more provincial and county championships along with the All-Ireland final appearances. But prior to that, their trophy cabinet lay bare for a number of years.<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan explains where the sudden burst of riches came from.<\/p>\n\n