Player Interviews
Christine Quinlan - Hermes

Christine Quinlan says there will be no ‘revenge’ mission for Hermes when it comes to tackling Railway Union on Saturday, reckoning if her side can tweak a few points, they can recreate the magic that saw them score the only wins over the Park Avenue side this season in normal time.

Hermes, though, created major waves in late January when they smashed five past the Park Avenue outfit before following up with a 1-0 Jacqui Potter Cup courtesy of an Aine Connery stunner.

Railway, though, snatched the Leinster laurels in the decisive game of that competition but Quinlan has no qualms about that outcome and is excited about facing the green and yellows for an incredible seventh time this season.

 “Personally, I’m delighted about the challenge. In order to be All-Ireland champions you have to beat everyone and we’ve been lucky enough to do it already – once very well, and then again subsequently in the Leinster Cup.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily revenge but we have a few things we want to put right ourselves; things we need to put to bed. In the Leinster league decider, we didn’t play our best and there was no question of being cheated out of it or anything, they were the better team on the day.

“We need to be more ruthless when taking our chances in attack, be patient because they’re obviously a pretty experienced side who are going to throw everything at us and then take the opportunities when our time comes.”

It’s been quite a turnaround for the Booterstown outfit. An opening day league loss to Loreto, coupled with defeats in the early stages of the ESB IHL and ESB Irish Senior Cup initially put the club on the back foot this season.

But with Eric Fintelman taking the reins before Christmas, the side recovered, recording 14 straight wins in Leinster and four back-to-back ESB IHL successes to announce themselves again as major contenders.

The Dutchman had initially been working solely on a weekend-to-weekend basis but, ahead of the grand finals, Fintelman has enjoyed an extended run with the squad which has buoyed the whole panel, as Quinlan attests to.

“Things are shaping up very nicely indeed. There are no injuries and the squad is pretty much as you would like coming into the competition. There’s plenty of competition for places and no definites at all on the team sheet. Having Eric over for the whole week which we haven’t had means it’s all going pretty nicely.”

His side go into the competition as the most rested of the final four with no late refixes or Senior Cup finals to contend with.
A lack of competitive match practice could be a factor, their last official outing in early April, but the rangy midfielder believes the two outfits are at the opposite end of the spectrum in their style of build-up; the benefits of which will only be revealed over the course of the weekend.

“The way Railway’s game went on Sunday, there’s going to players carrying heavy legs into the first half of this week so they’ve only a couple of days to get the head set for Saturday.”

“We haven’t had the level of competitive match that they have. There are disadvantages and advantages to that. We’ve had more rest but it’s not that we haven’t been training or playing the likes of Alex, Loreto and UCD. But it definitely cuts both ways.”

Hermes, though, definitely have a rich vein of know-how to draw from. The side have been near ever-presents on the national stage for many years, claiming the All-Ireland Club Championships in 2008 while making it to the final hurdle.

They enter this year’s competition without a couple of major names but Quinlan says that the young tyros replacing them mean there are no lingering doubts over what they are capable of.

“In many ways, we’re more positive this year. We were unfortunate to lose players like Jenny Burke and Jenny Osborne but you look at the depth of the squad for Saturday.

“Players who were underage last year, and still are this year, have made absolutely huge leaps in strength and tactical awareness over the course of the last season, I’d have to say we’re better equipped. It is all about what happens on the day but our frame of mind is fully confident and dying for Saturday to come.”

Interview conducted by Stephen Findlater, Freelance Journalist on behalf of the IHA