BETWEEN THEM, the camogie and football All-Ireland finals in September offered nigh on a dozen options for our sportswoman of the month award, with that many outstanding performances from players on both the winning and losing sides.

We opted to go down the captaincy route and choose Wexford’s Ursula Jacob and Cork’s Amy O’Shea as our joint September winners, both for their own contributions to their counties’ success and as representatives of their teams.

Jacob collected her third All-Ireland medal in five years and followed in the steps of Oulart-the-Ballagh clubmates Mary and Una Leacy by captaining her county to victory in Croke Park.

She led Wexford to a 2-7 to 1-8 win over Galway, her display, in which she scored 1-5 of her team’s total, earning her the player-of-the-match award.

Having trailed by three points with just 10 minutes to go, it was Jacob’s stunning goal that proved to be the final’s pivotal moment, the forward catching Josie Dwyer’s high ball before turning to smash her shot in to the roof of the Galway net.

“I wouldn’t be known for my aerial ability but I just said ‘I’m going for it’ because I knew we weren’t going to get many chances,” she said afterwards. “Thankfully it went in.”

And in some style.

Jacob added three more points to push Wexford over the line and retain their title, the top scorer in the 2011 Championship earning a place on the “team of the year” and an All-Star nomination.

Also nominated for an All-Star is O’Shea, an inspirational captain for Cork through a season that saw them win their fourth National League title in a row (she was named on the League “team of the year”) and their sixth All-Ireland in seven years.

Having completed a five-in-a-row in 2009, Cork were knocked out in the quarter-final by Tyrone in last year’s Championship. O’Shea described the atmosphere in the dressingroom after the game as “like being at a funeral, it felt like the end for us”.

When they trailed reigning champions Dublin by six points with 15 minutes to go in this year’s quarter-final it looked like the end again for Cork – until they scored seven unanswered points in those closing stages.

That remarkable fightback was followed by a comfortable victory over Laois in the semi-finals, in which O’Shea scored a hat-trick of second-half goals. But the final against a youthful Monaghan side was a battle, just two points separating the teams in the end.

O’Shea’s involvement in the game ended in the second half when she suffered the third cruciate knee ligament injury of her career. “I said two rosaries when I came off – and it was nothing related to my knee,” she said, but Cork held on and the Inch Rovers forward collected the Brendan Martin Cup to complete yet another memorable season for herself and the Rebel County.

Monthly awards so far . . .

(This year’s awards cover Dec 2010 to Nov 2011)

December: Fionnuala Britton (Athletics).

The Wicklow runner just missed out on a medal at the European Cross Country Championships, finishing fourth but given the same time as the runner in third.

January: Leona Maguire (Golf).

The 16-year-old won the Portuguese Amateur Open Championship, which featured over 80 of Europe’s leading amateurs, by a remarkable 15 strokes.

February: Fiona Coghlan (Rugby).

Coghlan captained Ireland to Six Nations’ victories over Italy and Scotland and just a two-point defeat to France in February. The team, without several of its most experienced players, went on to finish third.

March: Lisa Maguire (Golf).

Lisa followed up her twin Leona’s January success by winning the Spanish International Amateur Championship, a victory that lifted her in to the top 10 of the world rankings.

April: Nina Carberry (Horse racing).

Carberry became only the second woman to win the Irish Grand National when she rode Organisedconfusion to victory at Fairyhouse.

May: Jenny Egan (Canoeing).

The Salmon Leap canoeist took silver at the World Cup Two in the Czech Republic, a year after becoming the first Irish canoeist to medal at this level.

June: Katie Taylor (Boxing).

Our two-time sportswoman of the year won her fourth successive European Union championship title in Poland, her 11th major international title since 2005.

July: Sycerika McMahon (Swimming) and Madeline Perry (Squash).

A memorable month for the two County Down sportswomen — McMahon won two golds and a silver medal at the European Junior Swimming Championships and Perry added the Singapore Masters to her list of professional squash titles.

August: Deirdre Ryan (Athletics).

In the space of a few weeks during the summer Ryan improved her Irish high jump record at a meeting in Germany, helped her club Dundrum South Dublin to their first National League title since 1987, before breaking her record again (and securing her place in the London Olympics) to reach the final at the World Championships in Daegu, where she finished sixth.