Foxes raising the bar

FOXROCK Cabinteely kept their brilliant run of form rolling as they beat Sarsfields of Laois 4-13 to 3-9 in the semi-final of the Leinster ladies senior football championship.
They will now take on Kildare side St Laurence’s in the final as they look to match their achievements of last year and secure a county and provincial championship double.
Manager Pat Ring spoke to GazetteSport about his side’s win and performances this season.
“We are absolutely delighted and very relieved because we knew going into the game it was going to be a tough one. Sarsfields, over the last number of years, won five out of the last six Laois championships and two of the last four Leinster championships so we knew what we were up against having beaten them in last year’s final.
“The girls really were up for it and we were by far the better team on the day.”
Ring is now expecting another tough challenge when they take to the field on the weekend of November 6 for the final against St Laurence’s in Kinnegad.
“We saw them playing in their county final a couple of weeks back and they are formidable. They have a huge amount of current and former Kildare senior intercounty players and a very strong management team.”
Foxrock Cabinteely had a tough start to the season with injuries but the underage players they called up stepped up to the plate and did their club proud and they have scarcely looked back.
“It has been marvellous considering that at the start of the season we had a number of injuries. We played our first league match in Dublin during the first week of April and were short 11 players so we had to bring players up from underage level.
“It is difficult going playing one of the top teams in Dublin without 11 of your key players but those injuries had cleared up by the middle of June and since then we have been more or less injury free,” said Ring.
When asked if teams had raised their games against his team this season because of last year, Ring was quick to agree.
“They did. Last year in Leinster, we came in under the radar a little bit having not done well in Dublin since winning in 2012. Having gone to the semi-final of the All-Ireland last year, you can’t come in under the radar anymore with that so teams inside and outside Dublin all raised their game.
“We looked at it as a bit of a compliment because we feel we have brought an awful lot to ladies football over the last four or five years. We’ve raised the bar and, before us, Na Fianna raised the bar; before them it was Ballyboden St Enda’s.”