It's already being spoken about as possibly the greatest game of ladies handball ever played.
On Saturday, Limerick left-hander Martina McMahon ascended to the throne as queen of Irish handball when she defeated reigning champion Cathriona Casey of Cork in an amazing O'Neill's All-Ireland Senior Singles final.
And the Broadford native did it the hard way, losing the opener against the methodical Casey and falling 10-1 down in the second before storming back to win 21-19 and force a third game.
The deciding set ebbed and flowed but McMahon came up with the big shots when they were needed most, pulling off two spectacular kills to close it out 21-20, the closest possible result in a handball match.
McMahon's two-handed offense wowed the packed house at Kingscourt, Co Cavan. It was commonly agreed that Casey and world-champion Aisling Reilly from Antrim had dragged the ladies game to a new level but, McMahon has gate-crashed the party in recent seasons and her success on Saturday was her biggest to date; seeing her claim the captaincy of the ladies Team Ireland squad for the World Championships in Minnesota in August.
She admitted afterwards that she was "quivering" with nerves as she prepared to serve for the match for the third time.
She eyed up the "bottom brick" (handball code for a flat kill, the riskiest and most spectacular shot in the game), she said, and just went for it.
See the final stages and McMahon's reaction below:
Take it from us, in terms of sheer skill, Martina McMahon might well be the most talented female athlete in the GAA right now.
Meanwhile, in the men’s grade, Galway’s Martin Mulkerrins (25) coasted to a surprisingly one-sided 21-9, 21-11 win over reigning champion Charly Shanks of Armagh to bring the title west of the Shannon for the first time since Roscommon’s Mickey Walsh in 1987.
While Shanks opened a 3-0 lead in the opening game, the Moycullen man quickly found his stride and raced into a 17-4 advantage with a blitz of spin serves which bamboozled the 34-year-old Ulster champion, who was playing in his sixth final.
Shanks upped the ante in game two but Mulkerrins broke away to lead 17-9 and he rode his momentum to claim the title in fine style. Mulkerrins is the third champion is as many years following Shanks and Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy.
