A 'Perfect 10' from Steelstown's No. 10 in Ladies Championship final!

The Steelstown half forward hit 0-2 from play, including one audacious first half point in a brilliant, non-stop performance that saw her an ever willing outlet for team-mates as she knitted together much of the Brian Ogs attacking play.

“I was not expecting the ‘Player of the Match’ award at all,” smiled the St. Mary’s University College student, “Actually, I had to check that I was No. 10 when they made the announcement because I hadn’t a clue but I’m buzzing to get it! All our girls are delighted but it could have been any one of us. I’m over the moon.

“It was a brilliant result and a long time coming. Three years now but it’s great to get back to winning it. We are buzzing, delighted and we’ll enjoy the celebrations tonight.”

Saisnbury is one of the new generation of Brian Ogs senior ladies players having come through a succession of successful underage teams to give the team a load blend of youth and experience alongside more experienced players like Katy Holly, Ciara McGurk and Emma Crudden.

“Yeah, we’ve had a couple of new girls coming in from the underage ranks and that was great because it means we have a nice balance in the squad, a good age range, and hopefully we can keep this squad together now and build on this win.

“Everything this year has been a real bonus. We were thrown into the deep end slightly with training after such a long break due to the lockdown but the way all the girls responded was excellent and all the hard work was worth it as we got the result we wanted today.”

Steelstown’s decision to play with the breeze at their back in the opening half proved an inspired choice but Ella revealed they were taking nothing for granted at half-time despite their nine point advantage.

“We wanted to have that breeze behind us in the first half and we were trying to get the long balls in straight away but too often it wasn’t working because Ballymaguigan had sweepers in. It wasn’t easy but that goal coming up to half-time really lifted the mood,” explained Ella Rose (pictured below).

“Second half we needed to put it to bed and work the ball through the hands and it all paid off. We weren’t taking anything for granted at half-time, we knew we needed to start from nil-nil all over again.

“We knew we had to put the work in and we did, thankfully it was enough to get the result.”