Promotion secured, Cork ladies footballers head to Croke Park for Division 2 final
Laura O'Mahony taking on Clare's Joanna Doohan during their league clash at Ballyvourney. She has become a key member of the Cork attack this season. Picture: Dan Linehan
The Cork ladies footballers are first into action in the battle of the Rebels and the Tribeswomen over the weekend.
On Saturday they take on Galway in the Lidl Ladies National Football Division 2 League final at Croke Park, throw-in 3pm.
On Sunday it will be over to the camogie side as they face the same opposition in their league final.
Naturally, they will want to win the final but on the plus side they know they are already promoted back to Division 1, having been relegated at the end of last season.
Galway were also relegated and both sides now find themselves back up at the first time of asking.
Last year Cork’s only league win was over Galway and this year their only loss was to the same opposition, with the Tribeswomen having a 100% record to reach the final.
To be fair to Cork they didn’t deserve to lose that game to Galway and a few decisions went against them that saw the Tribeswomen come out on top.
It was Cork’s second game of the campaign and on another day they could have had two or three goals before they lost by 2-8 to 0-12.
But after they loss, from which manager Joe Carroll and all involved, learned a lot, the Rebels regrouped quickly and drove on to reach tomorrow’s decider.
As well as well-established players like Sarah Leahy and Katie Quirke, a number of others have held their hand up this season to become key members of the team.
Roisin Ni Chorcora from Naomh Abán has been outstanding in defence and up front Laura O’Mahony is showing the type of form she has been doing for some time for O’Donovan Rossa.
Abbie O’Mahony is another now settled into the squad and is showing the type of form that saw her lead Cork to minor All-Ireland glory a number of years ago, when Carroll was the manager of that side.
Tomorrow will be another tough battle for Cork and Galway will go into the final as favourites. Roisin Leonard, Siobhan Divilly, Kate Slevin, Ailbhe Davoren and Leanne Coen are just some of the players they can call on to continue their winning run.
Ahead of the game Carroll said that: “The priority from the very start of the year was getting promoted to Division One, so Saturday is a bonus.
“It would be great if we could win it. We're looking maybe at focusing on our performance as much as anything else, so that we're going into the Munster championship (in two weeks) in good stead.
“When you look at Galway's form it has been excellent since they played us because they've beaten every team extremely well. Whereas I wouldn't say we haven’t been in control of all our games and haven't put up the scores that they.
“We're hoping for a performance out of all our players and we will see what Galway can throw at us.”
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