Cork retain Munster minor ladies football title after a dramatic finish
Cork players celebrate after retaining the Munster Ladies Minor A Football Championship title at Mallow. Picture: Jim Coughlan
Cork retained their Munster Minor A ladies football title after a hard-fought win over Clare at Mallow.
Both sides were undefeated in the round-robin stages of the championship so going into this tie it was expected to be a close affair.
But inspired by the likes of Deirdre Cronin, Amy Sheppard, Kate Williamson, Lia Heffernan, and Laura Mahoney Cork managed to come through in the end.
This win sees the trophy remain in the possession of Cork for more than 12 seasons, and judging by their successes at U16 level at the weekend it doesn’t look like going anywhere fast.
Niamh McNabola opened the scoring for the Rebels when she picked up a breaking ball from a free by Cronin to raise a white flag.
With six minutes gone Sheppard doubled Cork’s lead after some good work by Aine Hallahan and Ciara Morrison set her up to point.
Cronin put them further in front when she scored a magnificent point from distance from a free. Williamson made it 0-4 to no score when she picked up the ball from the restart to point as Cork were enjoying the better of the opening stages.
Cronin was on target again as Clare were finding it difficult to get out of their own half.
With 17 minutes gone, Cork had one hand on the trophy when Hallahan played in Sheppard to find the back of the net, to make it 1-8 to no score at this stage.
A minute later and Clare were finally off the mark when Abby Downes pointed and she added a second from a free to make it 1-8 to 0-2 after 20 minutes.
She added their third before Cronin got the last score of the half to see the Rebel in a commanding lead of 1-9 to 0-3 at half-time.
Early points from Morrison and Cronin increased Cork’s lead as they dominated the pitch. Such was their dominance that seven minutes into the second-half Clare had yet to get the ball out of their half.
Two from Downes helped reduced the deficit before Clare were down to 14 when Ellis O’Flaherty was sin-binned for a foul on Morrison.
However, Caoimhe Redmond couldn’t beat her opposite number one as Jenna Murphy saved the resultant penalty to see it remain 1-13 to 0-6.
Despite being a player down Clare kept pressing forward in search of scores with Lucy Shanahan raising a white flag.
But the drama wasn’t over yet as late goals from Caoimnhe Cahill and Lauren Conway put only three points between the sides. But Cork hung on for the win they deserved overall.
D Cronin 0-6 (3f), A Sheppard 1-1, K Williamson, C Morrison 0-2 each, N McNabola, A Hallahan 0-1 each.
A Downes 0-5 (4f), C Cahill, L Conway 1-0 each, L Clarke, L Shanahan 0-1 each.
C Redmond; M Burke, A McKennedy, L Mahoney; M Condon, L Heffernan, A Fitzgerald; K Williamson, L Muray; B Smith, D Cronin, N McNabola; A Hallahan, C Morrison, A Sheppard.
O Cremin for D Cronin, G Cronin for M Burke (both 41), S Pattwell for B Smith, A O’Riordan for L Heffernan (both 48), S Sheehan for C Morrison (55).
J Murphy; E O’Malley, E O’Flaherty, C Byrne; A Longe, E Burke, C Ryan; C Queally, E Clune; S Torpey, L Conway, C Cahill; L Clarke, A Downes, L Shanahan.
L Power for A Longe (ht), K Fitzgerald for C Ryan (41), G Burke for E Burke (44), M Wallace for S Torpey (56).
Eamon Moran, Kerry.
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