THE 2020 TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate and Senior Ladies Football Championship Finals will bring the curtain down on a remarkable year at Croke Park next Sunday.
Croke Park will host its last playing activity of 2020, with a TG4 All-Ireland final double-header scheduled at the famous venue.
Meath and Westmeath will battle it out for the Intermediate title at 1.15pm, followed by the meeting of Cork and holders Dublin in the Senior decider at 3.30pm.
The Mary Quinn Memorial Cup and the Brendan Martin Cup are the prizes on offer for the winners next Sunday – while the victors in the Intermediate decider will also have the added bonus of Senior Championship football in 2021.
In the all-Leinster Intermediate Final, Meath are hoping to claim their very first Intermediate title, and their first adult All-Ireland title since the 1994 Junior win.
The Royals will be hoping to avoid a hat-trick of successive All-Ireland Intermediate Final defeats, while Westmeath, Intermediate winners in 2011, will aim to bounce back to the Senior grade at the very first attempt, following relegation in 2019.
Meath accounted for Down and Leitrim in the group stages, before producing a most impressive semi-final display against Clare.
Westmeath defeated Longford and Louth to top their group, before battling past the stern challenge of Roscommon in their semi-final.
The Senior decider, meanwhile, pits Cork against Dublin for the sixth time.
Cork won the 2009, 2014, 2015 and 2016 deciders, before Dublin finally got one over on the Leesiders in the 2018 Final.
Cork and Dublin met at Croke Park in the 2019 semi-final, also won by Dublin, who are aiming to land the Brendan Martin Cup for a fourth successive year, and for the fifth time in their history.
Victory for Cork would hand them a 12th TG4 All-Ireland Senior title, and their first since 2016.
Between them, Cork and Dublin have carved up the Senior honours since 2005, and you have to go back to Galway in 2004 for the last time a county outside of next Sunday’s Finalists claimed the silverware.
The respective match referees – Seamus Mulvihill (Intermediate) and Jonathan Murphy (Senior) will both complete the set of TG4 All-Ireland Finals next Sunday.
Kerry native Mulvihill took charge of the 2015 All-Ireland Junior Final between Louth and Scotland, before he refereed the 2017 Senior decider between Dublin and Mayo, while Carlow whistler Murphy oversaw the Junior Final between Longford and Antrim in 2016, and the 2019 Intermediate decider involving Meath and Tipperary.
For the Intermediate Final, Wexford’s Barry Redmond is the stand-by referee, the 4th official is Galway’s John Devlin, while Catherine Murphy (Limerick) and Sinéad McHugh (Donegal) have been assigned to lines-people duty.
Stand-by referee for the Senior game is Mayo’s Garryowen McMahon, Galway’s Shane Curley is 4th official, while Leah Mullins (Carlow) and Kelley Cunningham (Offaly) have been named as lines-people.
