Clogher women hoping to go one better at Kingspan

FOR the second year in a row, Clogher Valley’s women’s team will travel to Kingspan Stadium ready for action in the Suzanne Fleming Cup final.

Last season, they suffered a 21-10 defeat to Banbridge in the decider but in 2025 they will go into Saturday’s showpiece as favourites against a Ballymena team they have already beaten comprehensively.

And while this Clogher side is confident, they aren’t taking the Eaton Park girls lightly after suffering that heartbreak last term.

“We’re definitely still hurting from last year, so we’re keen to rectify that wrong,” admitted captain, Katie Hetherington, who is delighted that her squad will be well supported on the day with the men’s team’s fixtures not clashing with their showpiece this time around.

She continued: “We played [Ballymena] before Christmas and we played them last year. We have beaten them each time we’ve played. We beat them 53-0 before Christmas, which you would think was a walk-over, but that game was tough.

“They really, really bring it to us. They have such strong runners, they have come on so much since last year as well and with finals, it’s whoever turns up on the day.

“And that has been drilled into us from our coaches about complacency and the fact we need to be confident, we need to look at the history books and know we do have the ability to beat them but at the same time, they are in a final, they aren’t going to give up easy. They have something to win too, so we won’t be taking them lightly.

“And we’re looking forward to it this year because we’ll have a big crowd coming up to watch because that support makes a massive difference.”

Clogher’s season hasn’t unfolded quite how they anticipated it would during the summer when they were preparing to compete in Championship A after winning B in 2024. But before Christmas they found themselves promoted once more, gaining a place in the Ulster Premiership after the Branch rejigged the women’s divisions mid-season.

And it’s an unexpected promotion that has been embraced by the Valley girls who have excelled at the higher level.

Not that Katie is surprised, given the squad is one that embraces challenges, development and learning, so much so that even with her years at Cooke, with the Ireland under-18 sevens squad and the Ulster senior side, she has to constantly develop her skills too.

“We’ve been doing really well this year, particularly since we were moved up to the Premiership at Christmas time. It’s challenged us, it’s made us fight for more, made us improve. We’re not used to losing, which is a nice place to be. It’s been good,” she beamed.

“We’ve really taken giant leaps forward each year, but hat’s all credit to the girls to be fair. Everybody has that mentality that we need to keep pushing ourselves. There’s a certain standard that everyone holds themselves to, which you don’t see that often. It’s a real credit to them, we’ve worked hard all year round and it proves we do deserve to be up in the higher leagues.

“There are girls who have only started playing in September and last year there were girls who moved from Gaelic Football to rugby, so it’s not as if you have a bunch of experienced girls who have played longer than a year or two.

“Myself and maybe one or two others have played for longer, but the majority of the team are just new.

“And for me, moving back to the home club, it’s been very refreshing because it has made me take a step back and look at my performance, look at my skills and acknowledge where I need to improve. It’s kind of put me in a position where I have to look at myself, it’s been good and I love playing with the club.

“And the environment, it’s hard to put into words, the girls are always up for learning new things, they are always ready to take direction from coaches. There’s no one person who thinks they know everything, it’s very much a team atmosphere and the wins all come from team performances, which is great.”