Family ties and legacies on line in camogie club final

You have to lose one to win one, goes the old Gaelic games maxim around finals.

Some clubs and counties might rightly snort at the cliché but for Galway and All-Ireland camogie champions Sarsfields it rang true.

Beaten by eventual three-in-a-row winners Slaughtneil in successive deciders in 2017/18, they finally turned the tables on the Derry women in 2020.

Wexford Oulart-the-Ballagh dethroned them in the 2020-21 final last December but in the 2021-22 edition, played three months later, they gained revenge.

So Saturday's third final in exactly a year offers the chance of back-to-back titles, a third triumph overall and a chance to balance the wins and losses column.

"We've lost our fair share," Niamh McGrath told RTÉ Sport. "We lost three All-Ireland finals and it's so painful when you lose.

"Our return from All-Ireland finals hasn't been great so we want to improve on the percentage of winning and losing.

"The back-to-back titles isn't any motivation at all, it's just every game on its own. We're not really thinking about anything, only winning the final because you can't really beat winning. Once you get a taste for it, you want to win as much as you can while you can."

Niamh's sister Clodagh McGrath, Maria Cooney and Shannon Corcoran were all carrying knocks going into the hard-fought win over Dublin's St Vincent's in the All-Ireland semi-final. Younger sister Siobhan's penalty was crucial in securing a 1-11 to 1-10 win.

Another sister Orlaith - their father Michael 'Hopper' is manager - has missed the entire year with a cruciate ligament injury and their fellow Galway star Sarah Spellman will also be watching from the sidelines.

"They're huge losses in the context of a club team because they're inter-county starters," said