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Warning: Orla Finn will only get better

July 18th, 2017 8:30 AM

By Kieran McCarthy

Warning: Orla Finn  will only get better Image
All-Star footballer Orla Finn.

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West Cork ladies captain tipped to reach the next level

FOOTBALL world, you have been warned.

There's a lot more to come from All-Star footballer Orla Finn, according to West Cork ladies senior football manager Brian McCarthy.

After a sensational 2016 season that saw her fire her county and club to numerous titles, lethal forward Finn has been backed to take her game to the next level by McCarthy, with the Kinsale woman named as the newp captain of the West Cork ladies divisional team.

McCarthy feels the extra responsibility will bring the best out of Finn and that looked the case when she kicked six points in West Cork's impressive 5-12 to 0-13 dismantling of Mourneabbey in their first Group A game in the Cork ladies SFC.

Next up for West Cork is a group tie with Inch Rovers on Thursday, July 20th in Killeagh, with Finn expected to lead by example, again.

‘This year's Orla Finn is better than last year's,' McCarthy insisted.

‘Physically, she has got stronger, and she has also emerged as a real leader. She might not be recognised as a player who would talk a lot in the dressing-room but after speaking in the huddle before the game against Mourneabbey and at half-time, we, as a management team, were extremely pleased by what we saw from her.

‘She's a player that leads by example.

‘Orla knows from Martina (O'Brien) all the way up through the core of the team to Áine Terry (O'Sullivan) that there are leaders on every line, so that helps Orla and there's no extra pressure on her.

‘She's a better player than last year and there is more to come from her. 

‘She knows herself that she can improve certain aspects and the great thing about her is that if she does have a bad game, she goes away, analyses it, reflects on it and works hard to make herself better for the next game. 

‘She's the player who is half an hour early for training to practice her point kicking from different angles. Other players see that and feed off it.'

With Finn leading the charge and well supported by a number of Cork team-mates, including goalkeeper Martina O'Brien, Melissa Duggan, Áine Hayes, Libby Coppinger, Niamh Cotter and Áine Terry O'Sullivan, West Cork are primed to challenge for the ladies senior football title this season.

In a group with champions Mournabbey, Inch Rovers and St Val's (Val's beat Inch 1-11 to 1-7 in their first game), manager McCarthy admits that West Cork have set themselves a target but he refuses to look past the next challenge, Inch next Thursday night.

‘Inch are one of the renowned names in Cork football, one of the established clubs, we will have our hands full like in the Mourneabbey game and all we are looking for is the same type of performance that we had in the last game,' McCarthy said.

‘We played well against Mourneabbey. It was open, expansive football. We made a few positional changes from last year and it clicked, and we believe that when we click that we are as good as any team out there.

‘But if we want to reach our target we have work to do. 

‘Yes, we played well against Mourneabbey but looking back on the video afterwards there are still areas that we need to improve on if we want to get to a county final.'

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