National League

Apr 12 2025

Preview: Domino's Women's Super League Final 2025

It’s a tale of contrasting traditions in the Domino’s Women’s Super League final at the National Basketball Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Killester – bidding to become the second team in 15 years to defend their title and aiming for their third trophy in 18 months – against Utility Trust St. Paul’s – the team from Killarney competing in their first top tier national final at senior level. St. Paul’s will also become the first team to get promoted and win the Domino’s Women’s Super League in the following season should they hoist the trophy aloft at roughly 16:15 on TG4.

The tale of the tape suggests a tight battle on the horizon. This is the third time the sides have met this season, with the highest margin of victory five points and the record currently standing at 2-1 in favour of the Dubliners.

Utility Trust St. Paul’s will feel as if they owe Killester. Mark Grennell’s side rallied from nine points down to reach the Paudie O’Connor Cup final at the expense of Sunday’s opponents back in January, but St. Paul’s captain Denise Dunlea insists they’ll play without fear come Sunday.

“Quietly confident, to be honest,” she said during Tuesday’s National League finals media day. “We’re going in without fear. That’s what we’ve done in our last two games because we’re in bonus territory having just come up from division one last year. We’re just delighted to be here and hopefully we can put in another good performance for our supporters this weekend.”

In Dunlea, Lynn Jones and Rheanne O’Shea – head coach James Fleming has players who don’t feel as if they’re just representing themselves or their club, Dunlea says they are representing all of Kerry basketball this weekend.

“It’s massive for the likes of Lynn that she came come up here almost 20 years on from playing in her previous final, with her three young children and have that experience. I mean it’s the whole community in Kerry as well you know there’s a few supporters buses coming, so fingers crossed we can get a result on the day for the people of Killarney and Kerry.”

 Utility Trust St. Paul's players Rheanne O'Shea and Lynn Jones with the Domino's Women's Super League trophy.

Standing opposite Dunlea will be Irish international Hannah Thornton, who made the move from DCU Mercy to play with Killester this season and has enjoyed the introduction of the playoff system to the Domino’s Women’s Super League this season.

“I think it’s brought an extra kind of fight and an exciting finish to the season,” she said. “It’s about not peaking too early at the start of the season and I feel as if we are peaking at the right time now and hopefully that’s how it works out for us.”

Killester vanquished a few demons by defeating their Paudie O’Connor Cup final conquerors FloMAX Liffey Celtics in the last four to reach this stage and Thornton indicated that the victory did mean just a little more than usual.

“We were still hurting from the cup final in the semi-final two weeks ago, but we knew what we had to do to try and get the win and we managed to play really well as a team, there was a really big support behind us from Killester and it was a fantastic feeling to get that win.”

The 33-year-old isn’t buying into Utility Trust St. Paul’s underdog status too much, however.

“A lot of people have said that (Utility Trust St. Paul’s are a surprise package), but they have played really well this season. They’ve been on a great run so far in the playoffs, have a great combination of Irish players, Americans and Europeans, so they absolutely deserve to in the final. They fact we’ve played them three times this year means we can look back and see how to prepare fully for this game that we know it’s going to be a dogfight.”

 Killester's Leilani Turner with the Domino's Women's Super League trophy ahead of the final on Sunday.

Path to the final

Utility Trust St. Paul’s beat Catalyst Fr. Mathews on the final day of the regular season to grab their spot as the 8^th seed in the playoffs and haven’t looked back since. Starting off by taking down the regular season winners SETU Waterford Wildcats 69-66 before dispatching Trinity Meteors 67-64 to reach the decider.

Finishing in third place in the regular season standings gave Killester home advantage for their 88-80 win against Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell that set up a rematch with recent rivals FloMAX Liffey Celtics in Leixlip two weeks ago. It was Killester who exacted revenge for their Paudie O’Connor Cup final defeat last January to keep their drive for back-to-back titles in play with a 92-85 win.

Key Players

In the absence of the excellent Alex Wittinger, who has departed for Australia, her replacement Callie Cavanaugh – a late season pickup from The Address UCC Glanmire has been stepping up big during this post season run. In her three games with the Kerry side to date, she’s averaging 13.3 points and 12 rebounds per game. Alongside Gracen Kerr and Mathilde Diop, she will be the person St. Paul’s lean on the most in this contest.

Samathan Haiby has been one of the star players of the Domino’s Women’s Super League this season, continuing to show her class with 32 points in their 92-85 road win over FloMAX Liffey Celtics in the semi-final. Michelle Clarke is once again named to the All-Star first team, while in Ieva Bagdanaviciene, Killester have a big game player who has made tough shots in big situations in the past.