Scoil Bhride's Clodagh playing in Croke Park on Sunday

A teacher at Scoil Bhride will be playing for her Sarsfields, Co Galway, team in the AIB Senior Club Camogie Final at Croke Park on Sunday, and she has the whole school in Kilcullen cheering her on, writes Brian Byrne.

But her own pupils from 1st Class will be particularly rooting for Clodagh McGrath, who only began teaching in the school last September. As will principal Anne Flanagan, who also hails from Galway.

Clodagh and fellow Galway county woman Anne Flanagan.

The team will also include three of Clodagh's sisters — Niamh, Orla, and Siobhan — which makes it a very McGrath affair altogether when Sarsfields take on Derry club Slaughtneil. The game will be live on the RTE News Now app and on the RTE Player.

Sports was always a family affair in the McGrath household, as Clodagh's father, Michael 'Hopper' McGrath, was a hurler with Sarsfields and a member of the Galway Senior hurling team that beat Kilkenny in 1987 and Tipperary in 1988 to win the All-Ireland titles.

"There are a lot of other girls on the team whose fathers would have played Senior hurling in Sarsfields," Clodagh says, "so it's very much part of our culture."

Playing camogie with her sisters has always been a part of Clodah's life, as they are very close in age. "We were always playing camogie with each other at home as children, so it just naturally translated onto the field. We just never knew anything different."

She has been going home for training every Wednesday since September, but in Kilcullen she also trains the U14s Kilcullen Camogie Team which gives her plenty of time locally for practice.

So who is going to win on Sunday? "Well, they are a very strong team, and ours is very young, so we'll see." Reckon the RTE Player will be very busy in Kilcullen on Sunday.

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