Cork underage camogie sides turn attention to All-Ireland games

It was a mixed weekend for Cork underage camogie sides in action in their respective Munster championship finals.

The weather played its part as well, with the U16 A final moved to Cork from Fethard Town Park on Saturday, but the B final remained at the Tipperary venue on their 4G pitch.

On Sunday, the minors were due to play Limerick at Fethard, but that was moved to Templeglantine in Limerick.

Conditions both days didn’t favour any side playing decent camogie, and you can only wonder why these competitions are played so early in the year.

There are All-Ireland series for them all, so that may be a factor, and possibly state exams are a consideration too, but to play your Munster finals on January 24-25 seems a little early to me.

For the U16 A side a poor first half saw them trailing by 1-10 to 0-2, and it was always going to be difficult to recover from that.

But credit to the players, they came out fighting in the second half and gave it everything, with Alanah Murphy and Eabha Lynch hitting the back of the net to put them in with a chance.

But in the end, Tipp went back up the road with the cup after a 2-15 to 2-6 win, thanks in no small way to a player of the game performance from Maria Groome.

This young player is one to watch for the future, and if she keeps developing and working hard, then Tipp have a future senior star in the making.

As this game was finishing up in Cork, the B game was getting underway in Tipperary, and it was a pity that the weather stopped both being played at the same venue.

It split the Cork support and meant many who wanted to travel were unable to as they were needed at Castle Road.

This was a much closer affair, and all credit to the B side, it was a battle all the way to the end.

However, come the final whistle, they lost out by 2-6 to 1-5 to Limerick, who also won the A shield final. Aoibhinn Hudner 1-2, Lucy Heafey 0-2, and Ella McCarthy 0-1, were Cork’s scorers in a game that was in the melting pot right up to the final whistle.

However, the weekend finished on a high as the minors came out on top in their clash with Limerick in their clash.

This was a close game all through, and it took two second-half goals for the Rebels to emerge as winners.

All three sides will now turn their attentions to the All-Ireland series with a lot of work needed to be done by all ahead of those clashes in two weeks.