Can Derrygonnelly halt Kinawley's search for seven-in-arow?

As sure as night follows day, Kinawley and Derrygonnelly ladies meeting in the Senior Championship final is becoming as common.

The sides have been out in front of the rest in the county in recent years, but the Borus still have quite a bit on their rivals as they go in search of a seventh consecutive senior county championship.

The Harps have been the team who have felt the brunt of this Kinawley success as their familiar foe in finals but they will be hoping to dash Kinawle'y hopes of seventh heaven.

When moving into your first Ladies football management job, there would be worse roles than leading the Kinawley senior team.

Clogher native, Barry McKenna, has been involved with Tempo and Brookeborough men's teams in recent years before heading to Kinawley and he admits himself it is a team full of talent that he has inherited.

"They are a pleasure to train. No matter what I fire at them, they can't get enough and they want more and more and more.

"I suppose that is probably why they have been successful. But it's great to see they still want to be even more successful and the still want more and hopefully we can get them where they want to be."

Despite having already beaten Derrygonnelly comfortably in the Division One league final, McKenna is taking nothing for granted.

The Kinawley men know that championship football can take on a life of its own as they crashed out of their Senrio Championship.

McKenna is determined not to let this happen on Saturday evening under the Brewster Park lights: "I suppose in the league final we got off to a massive start which really stood to us. We got goals early on and it maybe killed the tie a wee bit.

"But come Sunday, championship football is completely different anybody can beat anybody on any given day.

"We'll not be taking anything for granted and hopefully we can give a good performance and get over the line on Saturday evening."

Kinawley are stacked with county players who were involved in Fermanagh's Junior All-Ireland glory but McKenna has been impressed with those not involved in the county squad as well, such as Gemma McCaffrey, Laura Doonan and Keelan Murphy.

But while he has all that talent at his disposal, he is well aware of Derrygonnelly's threats.

Eimear Smyth will lead the charge but McKenna pointed to Lynne Carroll and Brenda Bannon as others who can cause pain to his side.

"The way she played all year, she got top scorer in all of the championships in Ireland. Whenever you have someone like that in your team you are always going to be a threat and when you're up against someone like that you have to really try your best to nullify it.

"You are never going to keep a player like that scoreless or completely quiet you are just trying to limit as much damage they can do."

McKenna's counterpart in Derrygonnelly, Dermot Carroll, will be hoping his players stand up to the challenge on Saturday.

As they prepare for the championship final, Carroll is keeping the focus firmly on his team.

“Kinawley are the standard bearers in the county at the moment and have been for the best part of a decade," he acknowledged.

"But it’s important not to let the opposition consume your thoughts, so we are very much focusing on ourselves and our own strengths.”

The team has grown significantly throughout the year, said Carroll: “The girls have worked tirelessly since early in the season, and it’s noticeable how much they’ve developed as the year has progressed,” he added, confident in the progress they’ve made.

Discussing Kinawley’s threats, Carroll highlighted their star players: “Getting Joanne Doonan back from Australia has been a major boost for them, but they’ve quality all over the pitch. Gemma McCaffrey is a formidable attacking threat, and Danielle McBrien and Lisa Maguire bring a lot of energy to their attack. Aine McGovern and Roisin O’Reilly put in a huge shift in midfield, and they’re well-supported by county players like Courteney Murphy and Eimear Keenan. Overall, they’re a very balanced side.”

Reflecting on the league final loss, the manager admitted they had learned valuable lessons.

“We didn’t start particularly well and allowed Kinawley to dictate the pace. We struggled to keep possession and played within ourselves in the first-half, which left us with too much to do later on. However, we were much more competitive in the second-half, so we’ll definitely take that into the final.”

Saturday evening final in Brewster Park will be a huge occasion for both clubs and Carroll admitted his players are excited of taking part in the showpiece decider.

“There’s no better place to be than a Championship final under lights at Brewster Park,” he said.

“It’s a fitting reward for all the hard work the girls have put in this year.”