Throw Back Thursday: Anna Geary was the hero for the Cork minor camogie team as they claim the All-Ireland title

TWENTY years ago this week, Cork defeated Galway 3-12 to 1-04 and won the All-Ireland Minor A Camogie Final at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise.

The team that ‘nobody gave a chance to’ at the beginning of the year were led by Anna Geary, who scored 1-5 on the day, with just one of those scores coming from frees.

Cork were managed by John Cronin, who was into his sixth year at the helm, and he watched his players get the better of Galway with a stellar performance.

Cork lined out as follows on the day: M Murphy; E Dunne, M Nyhan, L Hawkes, S Downing, R Buckley, E Waters, O Cotter, A Geary, P Coughlan, H O’Regan, A Watson, T Shanhan, M Coleman, J O’Donovan.

It was the second consecutive meeting between the two counties in the final, and Galway were looking at avenging their 2-11 to 1-05 defeat in the 2002 decider. 

The Rebels retained the trophy with that victory and all the talk in the summer of 2003 was about winning three in a row. 

That achievement had last been done by Cork in the 1980s, and Cronin and his players were chasing an elusive piece of history at O’Moore Park.

The Rebels were looking for their 13th minor title that day in Portlaoise, and their attempt to upset the odds was almost over before it began as Mairead Dunne raised a green flag for Galway. 

Just 20 seconds were gone when the sliotar hit the back of the net and the stands that were filled with Cork supporters went silent.

Before that, the biggest talking point on the day was Sarah Downing moving to wing back and Orla Cotter going into midfield. 

Downing linked up with Rena Buckley and Edwina Waters, with that trio working in tandem to make sure that Cork were level with Galway at the interval.

Behind them was Marian Murphy, and she put that early goal behind her to keep a clean sheet in the remaining minutes at O’Moore Park.

At half-time both teams had 1-3 on the board, and the Rebels seized the initiative when the game restarted. 

This started with Hazel O’Regan setting up Mary Coleman and she scored Cork’s second goal of the game. 

The reports say that the ‘floodgates’ opened after that and the red and white ribbons were taken out in the stands.

Geary got the third goal in injury time, and that capped off a performance that led to her getting named Player of the Match. 

She lifted the trophy moments later and was an All-Ireland champion at minor level for the third time.

Cronin spoke to The Echo after the full-time whistle and he ranked the win over Galway as one of his best days on the side-lines.

“Yes, one of the sweetest,” he told Therese O’Callaghan. “And I will tell you why. 

"Even people down in Cork did not give us much of a chance. I was privy to the conversation the other day by so called experts who said we would not win an All-Ireland with this team. 

"But today we proved a point and also proved these people wrong.

“This panel has worked very hard all year and has done whatever we are asked. 

"Okay, today it did not look healthy for us at the start, but that is when you have to have faith in your players.

”They turned in a brilliant second half display,” was how Cronin assessed the second half, before admitting that he was concerned at the interval.

“I was very worried at half-time because Galway had come at us hard and they were quite physical too, but the girls never let them get too far ahead,” he explained. 

“When we went in on level terms at the break, I knew that if we continued to improve we could take them.” 

Geary echoed this sentiment when she spoke about the need for players to produce on the day.

“Past experiences have taught us hard lessons and at half-time (we) were turning to play with the wind, (we) were on level terms and had a lot more to give,” she said.

“There was very little said at half-time. In fact we were very relaxed. We just knew that there was a lot more in the can it was up to us to produce the goods. 

"It was a case of some players to up their performance and that is what happened.” 

That trophy was joined by an All-Ireland for Gaelic football later on that year. 

Rena Buckley was on both teams, and she won the first double of her career.

That is just one story from this team, with the victory over Galway acting as a springboard for a golden era of Cork camogie.

Anna Geary would go on to win the O’Duffy Cup on four separate occasions with her county. 

Rena Buckley finished her inter-county career having won seven All-Ireland medals in camogie and eleven in Gaelic football. 

She also won the double on six occasions, a run that included a ‘double double’ in 2005-06 and 2014-15.