Ever won two Championships ON THE SAME DAY? Steelstown's Ciara McGurk has it covered . . .

It's difficult enough winning one Championship title but imagine winning two..... ON THE SAME DAY!
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Well, Steelstown's Ciara McGurk can testify to just that emotional roller coaster after guiding Sean Dolan's to the TBF Construction Machinery Under 15 'B' Championship Shield title in Celtic Park on Saturday before donning the blue of Steelstown to help her Brian Ogs team-mates retain the Errigal Derry Senior Ladies Football Championship title. It was a third Championship medal in five years for the talented forward but the double celebration made this one that extra bit special.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a double win," smiled McGurk, "The Sean Dolan's girls won their Under 15 Final which was great.

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"It is quite hard to coach a match before playing a match because it drained me. It (the U14 final) was a really, really intense match but thankfully they came though and eventually won by two points and then we went ahead and got our own championship win so, yeah, I did the double! (laughs).

Steelstown Ladies' Ciara McGurk in action during Saturday's Errigal Derry Senior Ladies Championship Final against Ballinascreen in Celtic Park. (Photo: George Sweeney)Steelstown Ladies' Ciara McGurk in action during Saturday's Errigal Derry Senior Ladies Championship Final against Ballinascreen in Celtic Park. (Photo: George Sweeney)
Steelstown Ladies' Ciara McGurk in action during Saturday's Errigal Derry Senior Ladies Championship Final against Ballinascreen in Celtic Park. (Photo: George Sweeney)

"They are die hard fans and really, really support me even though I am playing for another club. They love coming to support me and really have my back, it's great."

McGurk was certainly put through the mill in the curtain raiser as a Dolan's team she has guided through the age grade fought out a thrilling decider against Limavady Wolfhounds. The Creggan girls led 4-01 to 2-03 at half-time before being pegged back to 4-04 apiece a determined Wolfhounds team. Two late points finally took McGurk's young charges over the line before it was time to get warmed up for her own game, the senior final.

The reigning champions played second fiddle for long periods before their class and experience finally told in the final quarter with McGurk to the forefront and all Brian Ogs positive attacking play as they eased to a 1-08 to 0-04 win.

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"It's fantastic," said McGurk, who also helps coach the Dolan's senior men's side.

"The game could have gone either way in the first half and leading into the second half it was a really defensive game. Both defences did really, really well but thankfully we pushed on in the last 15 minutes, got quite a few scores and then the goal which gave us that edge in the end.

"We won last year's final quite easy in the end up but coming into this one we knew it was going to be a tough game. Knowing we had that win from last year, it put a bit of pressure on because we really wanted to get the second. It gave us that edge to push one because we knew we had it in the tank, we knew we had it there, we just had to wake up."

Brian Ogs will now take on the Donegal champions in the Ulster championship and McGurk admits they have unfinished business with the provincial competition after Covid robbed them of the chance to compete last year.

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"Going through Ulster last year we were doing really well. We had a preliminary round clash and did very well against the Monaghan champions. We should have been into the quarter-finals and we were raring to go, we were ready for it.

"That gave us the incentive to get back in this year and it should give us a push to get going again for Ulster."

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