Trinity Meteors bid to end Cup drought

Sunday's InsureMyHouse.ie Paudie O'Connor Cup final pits two teams of varying National Cup pedigrees against one another.

Trinity Meteors haven’t lifted the trophy since 1996, but on the back of some very strong off-season recruitment with the addition of Irish international Claire Melia and American centre Celena Taborn, head coach Niall Berry appears to have found the perfect formula.

The Dublin side have defeated both of last season’s finalists, The Address UCC Glanmire and DCU Mercy to reach this stage, giving fans confidence that a 27-year drought might come to an end.

Melia is playing in her second final in succession, having taken home MVP honours with The Address UCC Glanmire a year ago.

Averaging 15-points per game in the competition to date, she is very wary of the threat posed by opponents Killester.

"They’ve great shooters, Mimi (Michelle Clarke) and Jenna Howe, they’ve very good post players and their Americans are brilliant and bring a lot of energy," Melia said.

"It’ll be a very tough game, we played them the third game of the season and we’ve just gotten close as a team since then, so really looking forward to seeing how we can put it all together on Sunday."

Conversely, Killester are no strangers to National Cup glory.

Mark Grennell’s side returned to Clontarf with silverware as recently as the 2019/20 season, but have dealt with a high turnover of players in the aftermath.

They’ve made an experienced roster count during their run to the final, accounting for a youthful University of Galway Mystics and Waterford Wildcats in earlier rounds.

Ireland international Michelle Clarke can draw from positive memories of their last trip to the National Cup decider, but she isn’t drawing too many comparisons between the