SARSFIELDS CAMOGIE STAR Maria Cooney says her side are grateful to have another attempt at regaining the senior All-Ireland title.<\/p>\n
\n Sarsfields star Maria Cooney.<\/p>\n
Source: Sportsfile<\/p>\n
The Galway champions were made to wait for their maiden crown, needing three attempts before finally emerging as winners at the end of the 2019 campaign after a tough battle against Slaughtneil.<\/p>\n
But they were outgunned by Wexford\u2019s Oulart-The-Ballagh in the delayed 2020 decider which only took place in December. The completion of the championship was initially expected to be scrapped due to Covid-19, but after a lengthy battle, a suitable window was found in the winter to finish out the series.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t result in back-to-back success for Sarsfields, but as the 2021 provincial series quickly came into view, they didn\u2019t have to spend long suffering with their wounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really strange that there was such a quick turnover and timeline,\u201d Cooney begins as Sarsfields prepare for an All-Ireland semi-final against their old rivals Slaughtneil on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I suppose the first thing was that we were so thankful that last year\u2019s one did go ahead. It\u2019s such a championship and for it not to have been played would have been an awful pity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a way, it was good that we didn\u2019t have a huge amount of time to dwell on things and overthink things. We just had to put it aside and move on and hopefully learn from our mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t get out of Galway in 2019 and the opportunity to even get there happen so seldom and I suppose Galway is a really tough championship. There\u2019s a couple of teams there that are so close, so the couple of years we did get out, I suppose it was disappointing that we obviously had lost the two and then to not get out of Galway and we did overcome Slaughtneil to win our first one, it was great.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing to Oulart-The-Ballagh was tough but again, any of the four teams that get to the All-Ireland semi-finals has to work really hard. Every team wants to win so I suppose they are huge challenges and any team you come up against is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are several important family ties in the Sarsfields camp that have all achieved All-Ireland glory at club and county level.<\/p>\n
The McGrath clan is probably the most significant one, beginning with the Sarsfields camogie manager Michael. Affectionately known as \u2018Hopper,\u2019 he has four daughters on the team [Clodagh, Niamh, Orlaith, and Siobh\u00e1n].<\/p>\n
The Cooneys are also Sarsfields royalty. Maria plays for the camogie team while her brother is star Galway hurler Joseph. They\u2019re both children of Galway legend Joe, who enjoyed Liam McCarthy success with \u2018Hopper\u2019 McGrath.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the families from when the lads won the club All-Irelands, the daughters are coming together. So, you have the McGraths and the Kennys and we\u2019re all close in age.<\/p>\n