Inagh Kilnamona 1-19 

Courcey Rovers 1-4 

WITH just a seven day turnaround from their first senior county championship win, and losing two players from that starting side, Sunday’s Munster semi-final clash with Inagh Kilnamona proved a bridge too far for a Courcey Rovers team that just couldn’t match the heights of last week.

There’s no doubting that Inagh were the better team, playing with the ferocious win advantage in the opening half, taking an eleven point lead into the break and still scoring more than Rovers in the second half with great work rate and teamwork.

Saoirse McCarthy was a big loss to Courcey’s after injuring her shoulder in Cork training during the week as Rovers struggled to get attacks going against the wind. As they understandably played a sweeper it afforded Inagh the opportunity of double marking Linda Collins.

Inagh had their homework done and smothered Rover’s short passing game out of defence. Going long with puck outs wasn’t an option due to the wind factor and Inagh were impressive. By half time they had seven different scorers and that was a concern.

Linda Collins had Courcey’s only score of the opening half on three minutes as she rounded Sinead Quinn to strike off her left to goal. But after that Inagh knuckled down and Rovers trailed 0-14 to 1-0 at the break.

When a team has such a lead they’ll do everything to hold it and that’s what Inagh did. They fell deep and brilliantly won possession around the middle of the park and half forward line. 

Jacinta Crowley pointed after two minutes but by the twelfth Inagh had hit three and it was going to take a mammoth effort now to win this game. Ashling Moloney did everything she could at centre back as Rovers continued to work hard but everything went wrong on the day. 

The turnaround was just too much as Inagh looked fresher all over the field and thoroughly deserved to advance to the Munster final.

Scorers for Courcey Rovers: J Crowley 0-3 (0-2 f), L Collins 1-0, F Keating 0-1 

Inagh Kilnamona: A Keating 0-8 (0-6 f), D Griffin 1-2, A Keane 0-3, A O’Keeffe 0-3, A Ryan, F Lafferty, S Power 0-1 each 

COURCEY ROVERS: S O’Reilly; O Twomey. K Keohane, G Hannon; C Hayes, A Moloney, Elaine O’Reilly; J Crowley, Eimear O’Reilly, C O’Neill, F Keating, Lorraine Collins; Linda Collins, A O’Donovan, E Maguire.

Subs: A M Collins for A O’Donovan (46), G O’Reilly for E Maguire (47), D O’Reilly for C O’Neill (51), I Lordan for O Twomey (55), L Helbrow for Lorraine Collins (59) 

Inagh Kilnamona: R Keating; L Ryan, S Quinn, M Mescall; T Hegarty, C Hehir, T O’Keeffe; F Lafferty, S Power; A O’Keeffe, C Commane, A Keane; D Griffin, A Keating, A Ryan.

Sub: J Fitzgerald for A Ryan (57).

Referee: Mike Ryan (Tipperary).