Ladies minor footballers honoured by Rebel Óg for major success

THE Cork ladies minor football team, who claimed the All-Ireland title recently, are the August winners of the Rebel Óg monthly awards.

The event is sponsored by the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs and Cummins Sports (award sponsors) in association with The Echo and RedFM, (media partners).

Cork began their journey to All-Ireland success last December with a number of trials. From those, a panel was chosen with players all the way from Aghada to Beara.

They trained twice a week and also played challenge games. The minors also welcomed their new sponsor, Wisetek, on board for the 2019 season.

Cork’s first competitive game in the Munster round robin series was against Waterford which they Cork won 5-18 to 1-2.

The next game was against Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium so the team prepared well and came out on top, 4-16 to 0-9.

The final game of the series was against Tipperary and was played in extremely wet conditions. Cork were victorious, 2-8 to 2-6.

This win gave Cork a place in the Munster final against Kerry in early May.

Manager, John Cleary, prepared the team well and they headed back to Dr Croke’s in Killarney on the Bank Holiday Monday.

The game was competitive throughout and after a good performance, Cork came back over the County Bounds with the Munster trophy after their 0-19 to 1-13 win. Following the Munster final there was a long break for players doing the Leaving Cert, before the All-Irelland semi-final.

This match was played on Sunday, July 21, at McDonagh Park Nenagh against Galway, a very strong team who were the All-Ireland minor champions in 2018.

This was a closely contested tie, but Cork won 3-13 to 1-13, and booked their place in the final against Monaghan.

The final took place on Monday, August 5, at O’Connor Park, Tullamore.

The game was keenly contested, but Cork pulled away in the second half and won by 4-11 to 1-8.