Ballincollig make winning return to top tier of Cork camogie by beating Ballinora
Ailish Scanlon in action for Ballincollig against Ballinora. Picture: Larry Cummins
Ballincollig got their SE Systems Senior Camogie championship campaign off to a winning start with five points to spare over Ballinora in Castle Road.
An impressive second half saw the victors hit the front and take control after Leah Hannigan fired home the only goal inside two minutes of the restart.
It settled them into a rhythm as they began to play with confidence.
It was level pegging at the interval, 0-5 apiece, after a close opening 30 minutes where the sides were level on four occasions. Ballincollig had the aid of the wind that was strong enough and the pace was fast with both sides driving long ball to their inside lines.
The Ballinora defence was superb as they worked hard to contain the threat up front posed by former Cork player Clodagh Finn, making her championship debut for her new club Ballincollig. Judy Murphy policed Finn well winning the majority of possession.
Cork defender Meabh Murphy was strong as Ballinora withstood the pressure Ballincollig applied. Rachel Murphy was prominent for Ballinora too as she showed her accuracy with four frees.
Louise O'Neill was on target for Ballinora with one from play and as the sides swapped score for score. Ailish Scanlon and Hannigan had two apiece for the Collig before Finn levelled it before the break.
Ballincollig, who reached the All-Ireland intermediate club final at Croke Park last season, hit the front with the first attack of the second half as Cork minor Hannigan evaded the Ballinora defence to finish to the net.
With their midfield working hard, Ballincollig began to find their feet. Sorcha McCarthy and Scanlon were influential as they pushed forward and began to find space.
Muprhy converted a Ballinora free but with Hannigan pointing twice, Ballincollig were up by four.
Both sides had goal chances within two minutes of each other. Collig keeper Ana Hartnett denied Louise O’Neill before Ballinora keeper Tara O'Donoghue foiled Ballincollig twice with excellent saves.
Ballinora were finding it hard to get through a Collig defence that was rock solid and they relied a lot on Murphy for scores from frees.
At the other end, the Muskerry side coughed up frees sent over by Scanlon and Finn putting their rivals in the box seat.
Ballinora battled on but struggled to score from play and they couldn’t find the goal they needed as Ballincollig held firm to run out winners.
L Hannigan 1-3, A Scanlon 0-3 (0-2 f), C Finn 0-2 (0-1 f), K Goulding 0-1.
Rachel Murphy 0-6 (0-5 f), L O'Neill 0-1.
A Hartnett; S Buckley, M Healy, C O'Sullivan; E Hickey, L Weste, R Millett; A Scanlon, I Fleury; L Hannigan, S McCarthy, O O’Leary; K Goulding, C Finn, B Cunniffe.
U Berbecka for L Weste (inj 60).
T O'Donoghue; E McAuliffe, S O'Keeffe, J Murphy; A O'Riordan, M Murphy, G Keohane; Rose Murphy, A Quirke; K Crean, C Dooley, J Murphy; Rachel Murphy, L O'Neill, A Murphy.
C Quirke for K Crean (inj 4), E Wolfe for J Murphy (inj 23), A Linehan for A Quirke (59).
Cathal Egan (Glen Rovers).
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