Cork Camogie: Blackrock see off Ballinora after extra-time cracker
Blackrock’s Maeve Coffey and Ballinora’s Aoife Quirke with their eyes on the sliotar in the air during the Senior Camogie Championship quarter-final at MTU. Picture: Chani Anderson
It took extra time to separate Blackrock and Ballinora in an exciting camogie quarter-final at MTU on Saturday, before the city side set up a meeting with champions St Finbarr's.
There was never much between them but Blackrock looked like they'd done enough with a Cliona O'Callaghan’s point two minutes into added time. However, it was disallowed by referee John Horgan, who awarded a free out following consolation with his umpires.
In the end, they still prevailed.
Blackrock took the lead in extra time with Juliet O'Keeffe and Kaitlin Hickey points. Ballinora hit the post with a Jennifer Murphy goal shot and then points from Hayley Ryan and O'Keeffe put the Rockies four in front.
Rachel Murphy did narrow it to 2-17 to 1-17 but Blackrock were four up at the start of the second half of extra time before a strong Ballinora finish saw them narrow the gap to two, through Rachel Murphy and Kate Dooley.
It took Kate O'Sullivan's score to seal the Rockies' last four spot.
Ballinora started well and looked lively. Rose Murphy and Grace Keohane had early points before Hayley Ryan converted two Blackrock frees and stuck from play.
Then came a brilliant Dooley goal after she outpaced her marker and Ballinora hit the next three points to open up a 1-5 to 0-3 lead after 15 minutes.
Hickey sent a long-range strike from play between the post and but Dooley responded. Ryan was busy and winning a lot of possession for Blackrock, clinical from frees while their defence began to tighten up Blackrock drove forward and earned frees in row which Ryan converted. The gap was cut to a point six minutes before the break and when Ryan set up Cliona O'Callaghan to finish to the net Blackrock hit the front.
Michelle Muprhy added a point and they led 1-9 to 1-6 at half-time.
Ballinora narrowed the gap with two Rachel Murphy points but a Ryan goal after good work from O'Callaghan had Blackrock back in control, leading by four. Still, Ballinora were finding gaps and two Murphy points trimmed the margin to two.
Play swung from end to end as Blackrock clung to their lead. Kaitlin Hickey split the posts while Murphy and O'Callaghan scored again.
Ballinora pressed and won a penalty and a bit of hesitation about who would take it, Meabh Murphy's shot was saved by Anna Kearney. A huge boost with nine minutes remaining but Ballinora showed real character.
Rachel Murphy converted two frees and struck the equaliser from play on 60 minutes. O'Callaghan then thought she'd won it in added time but it ultimately took extra time.
H Ryan 1-10 (0-5 f), C O'Callaghan 1-2, K Hickey 0-3 (0-2 f), J O’Keeffe 0-2, M Murphy, K O’Sullivan 0-1 each.
Rachel Murphy 0-12 (0-9 f, 0-1 45), K Dooley 1-3, Rose Murphy 0-2, G Keohane, C Dooley 0-1 each.
A Kearney; M Ryan, M Cashman, L Guerin; A Hegarty, R de Faoite, O Grimley; K Hickey, J O’Keeffe; M Murphy, H Ryan, E Curtin; C O’Callaghan, L McKeogh, M Coffey.
S McCarthy for McKeogh (40), J Murphy for Curtin (40), K Lyons for Guerin (54), K O'Sullivan for Coffey (67).
T O'Donoghue; A Conway, S O'Keeffe, J Murphy; E McAuliffe, M Murphy, E O'Driscoll; A Quirke, Rose Murphy; G Keohane, Rachel Murphy, K O'Shea; C Dooley, J Mehigan, K Dooley.
N Kingston for McAuliffe (47), J Murphy for Mehigan (50) A Murphy for O'Driscoll (inj 73).
John Horgan.
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