It's a Paradise delight for O'Hanlon and her warriors

The brilliant Bessbrook sportswoman was reappointed as Warriors skipper ahead of this tour to the Caribbean by head coach Sheonah Forbes despite turning 40 early last month and being curtailed by injury during the Armagh GAA’s All-Ireland bid this summer.

Her lower left leg was still strapped, but O’Hanlon started all three Tests in the space of four days against a Bajan Gems side ranked 15 in the world, only coming off for the final few minutes as the tourists won the opening game 53-43.

A superb performance by the Warriors gave the captain the luxury of putting her feet up for the last quarter of the second Test, which Northern Ireland won by the stunning scoreline of 67-39 to secure a series victory at the 4000-capacity Garfield Sobers complex.

However, Northern Ireland’s most capped player of all time, who has been in the national squad since 2002, went the full hour the following night when the Warriors had to work hard to complete a clean sweep against their hurting hosts.

With a vocal crowd cheering them on, the Bajan Gems got stuck in physically so O’Hanlon had to take a few heavy hits, yet it was, somewhat incongruously, the Warriors who had a player sent to the sinbin during the final quarter.

Thankfully Northern Ireland had a lead of nine at that stage, but losing the totemic Michelle Magee, vice-captain of O’Hanlon’s Leeds Rhinos last season, was a big blow, with Severn Stars vice-captain Niamh Cooper having already been taken off after an official warning.

But O’Hanlon and fellow south Armagh woman Frances Keenan from Cullyhanna calmly ran the clock down during Michelle’s absence and she was back on court by the time her older sister Emma Magee scored the last goal in Northern Ireland’s 55-45 win.

The encouraging clean sweep on the Caribbean trip takes the record of Warriors gaffer Forbes to 10 wins from 10 matches at the helm following last December’s 2-0 Test series success against the Republic of Ireland and trophy triumph at the Europe Netball Open.

The Warriors were fast out of their blocks in the opening game, netting the first seven goals of the evening, though the hosts pulled the scoreline back to just 13-9 down at the end of the opening period.

With Forbes starting O’Hanlon at wing attack, Keenan had to settle for a place on the bench initially but she was back in the starting seven for the impressive performance in the second Test and came on to win her twenty-fifth cap in the final fixture.

From that seven-goal deficit, Barbados did well to narrow the gap by the first interval and then surged ahead in outscoring Northern Ireland 17-9 in the second quarter to lead by four at half-time after a late burst.

But the tourists took the third quarter on the highly impressive scoreline of 22-7, meaning they had the luxury of being edged in the final period but still winning by double digits, Orlaith Rogers leading the way with 21 goals.

For the second Test two nights later, Keenan looked lively early on and Northern Ireland led by four at one stage, but Barbados battled back and edged in front on seven occasions before finishing the opening period one down on a 16-15 scoreline.

Northern Ireland pulled away by outscoring Barbados 21-9 in the second quarter, with Keenan contributing to some beautiful flowing attacks including gloriously orchestrating the move which led to the last goal before half-time.

The 24-year-old sat out the penultimate period before replacing O’Hanlon at the start of the last quarter on an evening when McCloskey scored 33 goals and Northern Ireland clinched the series in emphatic fashion to the delight of their captain.

“Coming here, we knew that Barbados are an athletic, skilful, physical and dynamic team so that we’d need to be clinical from the start. Having won the first Test, we were conscious Barbados would come back strong and that we’d have to bring the intensity,” said O’Hanlon.

“Barbados came out of the blocks firing and it was a really close game in the first quarter but we felt that, if we stuck to our processes and what we’d been working on, we could pull away as the game went on.

“We were delighted that we were able to get all the bench on tonight. We’ve been working on our structures and processes so that everyone’s comfortable and can slot in seamlessly and I think we saw that here.”

With precious ranking points at stake less than two years out from the Commonwealth Games, the third Test was still an important match and the Warriors dug deep to achieve another valuable victory.

Her spritely performances in the Paradise Series will give Armagh Gaelic followers hope that O’Hanlon, whose British SuperLeague feature is set to be officially confirmed today (Wednesday), will be back in the orange jersey for an astonishing twenty-fourth consecutive season in 2025.