Cork Women's Super League sides all face road trips

All three Cork teams are on the road this weekend as the Domino’s Women’s Super League enters the fourth round of games.

It will be interesting to see if Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell can bounce back to winning ways away to Waterford Wildcats following their home defeat to Killester.

There is little doubt coach Liam Culloty will have been disappointed with his side's second-half performance after an impressive opening 20 minutes.

They looked unprepared in the offensive court as they were running little to break down Killester’s defence. Americans Brailyn Joseph and Maddie Cluse were subdued and only had a 24-point tally between them.

PRIORITY

When you have two professionals, the main priority should be getting them open and I didn’t see a screen for either professional over the four quarters.

Edel Thornton is not figuring in the scoring charts in this campaign, but to be fair to the club and Irish captain, she has suffered bad injuries throughout her career. It's harder to play with the same tenacity she played with in the early years of her career.

Lauryn Homan did relatively well but again, the majority of her scores came from individual plays. Maybe with the panel of quality Irish players in the Brunell squad, coach Liam Culloty is struggling to get the best from them.

Waterford got the better of Trinity Meteors last weekend and Brunell will need to raise their game to secure the points.

UCC Glanmire coach Mark Scannell will have been pleased with his sides home win against Liffey Celtics and they face a tricky trip on the road to play Portlaoise Panthers.

The one plus for Glanmire was the form of their Americans Jewel Watkins and Viane Cumber and another similar display should help them secure the points.

Claire O’Sullivan has given some wonderful years of service to the sport and her return after missing their loss at Killester was evident as she helped see off the Liffey Celtics challenge in style.

The Midlanders are always a tough proposition on their home court but Glanmire, with a full panel, should secure the points.

Catalyst Fr Mathew’s are still seeking their first win and despite a brave performance at St Paul’s Killarney last weekend they went down to a 13-point defeat.

After putting in a good first half shift Mathew’s only trailed 39-34 at the interval but the Killarney side increased the tempo in the third quarter and increased their lead to 15 points.

Like the other Cork teams competing in the Super League lack of quality among the Irish players is very evident. With the exception of Amy Murphy (12) and Grainne Dwyer (11), the remaining Irish players could only chip in with a paltry six points.

Another problem was a low contribution from American Lexie Givens, who could only manage four points in 39 minutes of action. Playing the champions Killester on their home is always a tough task and Mathew’s could be in for a tough evening at Clontarf.