Joe Carroll: Lifting a trophy will give Cork's young players confidence

It was a game he won’t forget for some time as Joe Carroll led Cork to their first Lidl league title since 2019, with an ending you couldn’t have scripted.

With the game in the balance and Cork after staging a magnificent comeback to draw level, thanks to a Katie Quirke goal, they got a second, thanks to a Galway defender.

It came about as Rachel O’Regan fisted the ball towards goal. Had it gone in it would not have counted but a Galway defender tried to keep it out and by doing so scored an own goal, which put Cork three points up. They added two more to secure the win, which few would have predicted at half-time.

But Carroll said he was confident that the goal would be given and that he wasn’t worried at the break about his side being behind.

Asked about the win and if Cork were back Carroll replied: “We're back for this evening but Tipperary, Kerry and Waterford won't be long trying to knock us off our perch in the Munster championship.

“But look it is great to get a trophy because for these players in particular it was important for a lot of them. 

They're very young and it gives them a bit of relief to finally get one.

“We didn't play that particularly well, especially in the first half when we were playing against the breeze. We were trying to run the ball a lot, whereas the second half it opened up a bit and it suited us and we were able to kick the ball as well so that helped a bit.

“At half-time I didn't think it was gone because we were only down five and I've kept telling them all the year, we've finished strong in the last 15 minutes, which we did.

“The likes of Rachel Leahy and Aoife Healy, I thought were superb in the last 15 minutes. It’s nice to see the likes of Shauna Kelly coming up the field to give the last pass for Áine O’Sullivan to score the last point, it was fantastic.”

DEBATE

On the goal that was given after a long consultation between the referee and his umpires Carroll added: “I felt it probably was going to be given because they were deliberating so long. Rachel should probably have put it over the bar, but even if she hadn't scored that, if we'd got a point with it, I do still think we'd have beaten them.

“I got the message from one of the management here that was looking at it on the screen that it was a goal.”

Carroll doesn’t believe in revenge or looking back and said it wasn’t nice to beat them after losing last year’s Division 2 decider, but because of the quality of their side.

“It was nice to beat them from the point of view that I think they're a superb team, and they've been very unlucky to be fair to them. They lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Dublin last year, and I felt they should have won that game, and I think if they had won it, they'd probably would have won the All-Ireland.

“It should give our players confidence, but look, we know we still have a lot of long ways to go out, we're far from the finished article, we're a work in progress and it's nice to get a trophy.”