Mary Hannigan
The highlight of week three of the Penneys' Leinster League season is the first meeting of the new campaign between teams with genuine title ambitions, Pembroke Wanderers and Loreto.
The form guide, which shows three wins and a draw for Pembroke in their clubs' last four league meetings, firmly favours tomorrow's home team, who also beat Loreto in last year's Leinster Cup final to give the club its first senior trophy in almost 20 years.
Lining out for Pembroke at right back tomorrow will be one of the club's new recruits, Rachel Brophy, who left Loreto at the end of last season after being with the club since she was 12 years old.
"It will be a strange game for me, I've been thinking about it a fair bit," she said. "It will be a weird feeling playing against Loreto, but I'm looking forward to it.
"I've settled in really well at Pembroke, the girls have been great. Confidence-wise it's been a huge boost, I'm a bit more central to things here. It's quite a young team - the line I was given by the club when I joined was that I'd bring some experience to the team, which just made me feel old. But I love being able to help younger players - I didn't really have a senior role or that kind of input at Loreto, so I'm really enjoying it.
"It's such an ambitious club. Roy (Horsfield) and Gino (Barnwell) are good fun, but very focused, and their commitment is something else.
"Thirty people turn up for training, the squad is mighty. We don't really have the stars that Loreto have but we have great depth, which could stand to us yet this season when clubs start losing players to the international team."
Like Brophy, coach Horsfield is hoping for an improvement on last season, when Pembroke finished fourth in the league, but he has no doubts about which team will set the pace.
"If you're close to Hermes you'll be close to the top - the rest of us are trying to close the gap," he said.
"When you look through their squad they have some wonderful players, so they're still the team for everyone to try and catch. Loreto and Alex will always be there, and I expect ourselves and UCD to be up there too."
Pembroke's weakness last season was in the scoring department - they managed just 30 goals in 18 league games, compared to Loreto's 62 - but Horsfield hopes the arrival of Siobhan Kane and Lorna Hill, along with Viv Doran "moving up front", will see the team create, and take, more chances from open play. So far, though, their seven goals in their first two games have come from set pieces.
Loreto are one of the clubs who will nervously await the announcement at the end of November of Riet Kuper's panel for March's Olympic Qualifier.
Having already lost four senior players from last season's squad, international call-ups for Cathy McKean, Nikki Symmons (both on the current panel), Louisa Healy, Jessica Lynch and Orla Ryan (all added by Kuper to Ireland's fitness programme) would leave coach Siobhan Keogh with limited options for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile, in Ulster, Irish under-21 coach Stephen Jackson, who stepped down as Munster men's coach recently, will be in charge of Portadown for the first time since his appointment as coach of the Section One team - they play Belfast Harlequins at home tomorrow.
LEINSTER LEAGUE - Division One: Trinity v Railway Union, Santry, 12.0; Pembroke Wanderers v Loreto, Ballsbridge, 1.45; Three Rock v Hermes, Grange Road, 1.30; Corinthians v UCD, Whitechurch, 1.30; Genesis v Old Alexandra, Belfield, 2.45.
Division Two: Muckross v Glenanne, Donnybrook, 12.30; Hermes II v Loreto II, Booterstown Avenue, 1.15; Diocesan v Our Lady's, Rathgar, 2.0; Pembroke Wanderers II v Old Alexandra II, Ballsbridge, 3.15; Corinthian II v Clontarf, Whitechurch, 5.0.
ULSTER LEAGUE - Section One: Pegasus v Ards, Queen's, 2.30; Ballyclare v Randalstown, Valley Leisure Centre, 2.30; Victorians v Ballymena, Olympia Leisure Centre, 4.0; Coleraine v Ballymoney, UUC, 2.30; Portadown v Belfast Harlequins, Edenvilla, 2.30.
