LAURA O’Mahony and O’Donovan Rossa are looking forward to contesting a senior B county final in their first year at the Cork Credit Unions Cork LGFA’s top grade.

They face Glanmire in the senior B decider this Sunday in MTU Cork (1.30pm).

Making the step up to senior was never going to be easy despite O’Donovan Rossa’s recent record. Cork and Munster intermediate titles were annexed in 2024 as well as losing an All-Ireland semi-final. Those triumphs came hot on the heels of 2023 All-Ireland, Munster and county junior A victories, plus a 2021 junior B county final success.

Yet, going up to the Cork LGFA senior grade, as any promoted club will tell you, represents the biggest step up in quality a team will face.

That’s why O’Donovan Rossa captain and Cork senior Laura O’Mahony is full of praise for the manner in which her club has acclimatised.

Qualifying for a senior B county final, after narrowly missing out on a senior A semi-final, is just reward for hard work on the Rossa’s training pitch.

‘Going up senior this year, all we wanted to be was competitive,’ O’Mahony told The Southern Star.

‘We never really set our sights on making a county final, A or B. So, to be heading up to Cork on Sunday is something we are really looking forward to.

‘Our run just shows how competitive the senior grade is. It came down to points difference (losing out by two points in the group stage) between us and St Val’s as to who would reach the senior A semi-finals.

‘That shows that every score matters in every game, whether we kick it over the bar, every block, every point. That’s something that we’ve really come to terms with this year.

‘In hindsight, I suppose we are a bit disappointed not to have made a senior A semi-final.

‘At the same time, if we had been told at the start of the year that we’d get a county final spot, we would have grabbed it with both hands.’

Glanmire are the West Cork club’s opponents in this season’s senior B county decider after the two sides came through their respective semi-finals last weekend.

Rossa’s knocked out fellow West Cork LGFA rivals Kinsale, 4-10 to 2-5, while Glanmire ended the hoptes of another West Cork club, Clonakilty, of reaching a second consecutive final following a 2-14 to 1-3 triumph in the Pike, Sallybrook.

‘We know Glanmire are a serious, serious side,’ the O’Donovan Rossa captain stated.

‘They have some unbelievable athletes and really good skill levels.

‘The pace that they bring to the running aspect of their game is so impressive. 

‘We know that we are really up against it but they’ve been a bit like us in winning an All-Ireland intermediate title a few years ago.

‘We have had similar experiences of tight and high-profile games too. 

‘Anything can happen on the day but we know that we’re going to have to put in a serious performance to have any chance of beating Glanmire.’