Leanne Maguire achieved a significant career milestone a fortnight ago, now the Magheracloone attacker has her sights set on the Monaghan title.
Despite breaking into the adult club ranks in 2012. Maguire reckons she hadn’t tasted a victory of any kind against the all-conquering Donaghmoyne until their senior championship semi-final meeting two-weeks-ago.
While, Donaghmoyne were chasing a 22nd consecutive Monaghan SFC title in 2024. Seven points from Maguire helped Maghercloone to a nine points to four triumph. Bringing their neighbours’ remarkable stranglehold on the competition to an end.
Donaghmoyne also had 14 Ulster senior club championship crowns and five All-Ireland senior championships during a monumentally successful period.
However, they will be forced to watch on as Magheracloone and Emyvale face off at St. Tiernach’s Park, Clones tomorrow (throw-in 4:15pm) to reach the summit of the Monaghan club scene.
“It can be just on the day” explained Maguire, “anything can happen”. “From what I remember, league or championship, we’ve never beaten them [Donaghmoyne]”.
“It was a real good day for us” Maguire added. ”I’d say that shocked probably a lot in the county and maybe the country as well.”
“Real credit to our defence, I have to say. They worked very hard” Maguire added. “I’d say we got the most turnovers we nearly got in any game in the championship”.
“That was something that we were going to have to do if we wanted to beat Donaghmoyne, get them turned over and break at pace”.
“From what we know of Emyvale, they like to move the ball at pace” Maguire explained of their final opponents.
“They have players with pace. They try to transition from back to front quite quickly and you still have big names coming from ladies football still playing them”.
Emyvale have pace throughout the team
“We definitely don’t underestimate them and we’ve a big task ahead of us, but I really believe that we can hopefully get over the line.”
Interestingly, the last Monaghan senior ladies decider not to feature Donaghmoyne featured Magheracloone.
Back in 2002, Monaghan Harps claimed their third successive county senior title with a nail-biting 5-8 to 1-19 win. Despite a 1-7 haul from Magheracloone’s county star Niamh Kindlon.
Kindlon was still playing 10-years later when a Magheracloone side, which included Maguire claimed a Monaghan intermediate title over Aghabog.
Maguire amassed an astounding personal tally of 1-11 when Magheracloone once again secured intermediate championship honours against Inniskeen in September 2020.
A source of great inspiration to Maguire during her formative years on the team; Kindlon continues to play a key role for Magheracloone as part of the current management set-up alongside her sister Fiona.
“2012 would have been my first year on the panel” Maguire explained. Fiona Kindlon, who is over us now, would have brought me onto the panel at that stage. That would have been my first taste of senior football and winning the intermediate championship that year was brilliant”.
“I was only maybe 16, I think, when I first came onto the senior club team and a great honour to get to play with Niamh”.
“One of the most decorated ladies footballers in the country, never mind in county Monaghan. It’s really fitting to have herself and Fiona over us this year.”
At the same time, she was learning the ways of adult club football, Maguire was an underage star on the inter-county scene. Scoring 3-4 when Monaghan beating Tyrone in the 2011 Ulster U16 football championship final.
Championship success early in career
Maguire subsequently graduated to the senior panel. While there have been some years without involvement, Maguire was a regular presence for the Farney County throughout 2024.
Whereas, Niamh Kindlon competed in no fewer than seven TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship finals, winning one as a teenager in 1997. Maguire currently finds herself operating in the second-tier of ladies football.
The county’s continuous 30-year stint in the Brendan Martin Cup came to an end in 2022!
Whereas, they led by three points at an advanced stage of their meeting in June. Monaghan’s quest for a return to the top table ended this year in an intermediate championship quarter-final loss to Down.
Yet despite the obvious frustration at this result (a 2-12 to 2-9 defeat), Maguire maintains a healthy degree of optimism about Monaghan’s inter-county future.
“Disappointed not to get across the line” explains Maguire. “In the end it could have gone either way”.
“We probably just left ourselves with a little too much to do in the second-half. But it’s really positive overall going forward and into next year. We have that belief that those things are achievable for us”.
“An aim for us, our goal we had at the start of the year, was to try and make sure that we stayed in that Division Two [league] tier”.
“Because that is where we feel we’re capable” added Maguire. “We believe that we can push on from this year and we have that belief that we’re good enough to compete with those teams. Definitely”.
A graduate from the Dundalk Institute of Technology who is hoping to dip into the world of online coaching in the next few years (she already has her own fitness page on Facebook). Maguire was the sole representative from Magheracloone on the Monaghan panel this year.
Magheracloone for Monaghan
However, given the impact they have made to date on the local scene in 2024; Maguire wouldn’t be surprised if she was joined by some of her team-mates in the Farney set-up before too long.
“There is definitely girls there, in my own club and throughout the county, who definitely would be a big help to the panel” Maguire declared.
“Management, I’m sure are watching these games very closely and hoping to introduce some of those girls onto the panel.”
“The likes of Lauren Jones has been great for us this year throughout the championship. Some of the younger girls even, the likes of Megan Byrne and Abi Carolan, all doing brilliant work for us there at club level.”
