Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final
Cork 1-16 Galway 0-16
SUBSTITUTE Sorcha McCartan made a key contribution towards Cork’s 30th Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior title in Croke Park yesterday afternoon.
When she came off the bench in the 38th minute for goalscorer Katrina Mackey, Cork held a lead of five points and Amy O’Connor’s free from under the Hogan Stand put six between the teams. The Leesiders looked to be coasting.
Suddenly Galway hit form and over the next 10 minutes they scored six unanswered points to draw level at 1-13 to 0-16; three from Carrie Dolan, two top-class scores from Aoife Donohue and one from defender Ciara Hickey.
Now Galway seemed to have the momentum. McCartan’s first shot for a score was taken down by Sarah Healey above the cross bar. Her second, however, was a fine angled point and it got Cork going once more. Another sub, Clodagh Finn, made the gap two points with 54 minutes gone.
In a frantic final 11 minutes, Galway had four wides including one for McCartan’s former team-mate with Down, Niamh Mallon – there certainly were enough chances to grab a replay.
Instead Cork got a break and their subs combined for another score, Finn’s cross-field pass picking out McCartan and the Castlewellan native fired over the bar.
“I really enjoyed that,” said McCartan.
“I knew I might only get a chance of two over the 20 minutes and I had to take them.
“When I came on, we looked in a good position but we knew Galway would come back at us. They are a good team and you could see from the start that it was a very different game to the group game in Páirc Uí Chaoímh.”
In the end Cork got something special off the bench when they needed it – the final three points. Galway couldn’t find the little extra despite an excellent first half during which they didn’t record a single wide.
Despite conceding the first two points to Mackey and Saoirse McCarthy (free), Galway were generally in control of the first half hour. But every time they edged ahead, Cork hit back quickly and that meant that there was never more than a point between the sides until the break when Aoife Donahoe’s second point finished the scoring to leave it sitting at Galway 0-10 to Cork’s 0-9.
After 20 minutes five of the six Cork forwards had scored, while four from Galway, including Niamh Mallon in the 20th minute, had found the range.
The Leesiders had a whirlwind start to the second half. Orlaith Cahalane and Aisling Thompson pointed before Amy O’Connor put on the after-burners in a break from the Hogan Stand wing. Her hand-pass found Katrina Mackey who threw the sliotar up to hit it, but missed. It ended up over the line. Should the goal have counted? It probably shouldn’t have, but it did and when McCarthy and O’Connor (free) pointed, the holders led by 1-13 to 0-10.
Back came Galway to level the argument. But they failed to score over the final 10 minutes plus the five of added time.
Instead the Leesiders got their lift from the bench and finished powerfully.
Cork A Lee; M Murphy, I O’Regan, P Mackey; H Looney (0-1), L Treacy, L Hayes; A Thompson (0-1) A Healy; C Healy, F Keating (0-1), S McCarthy (0-4, 1f); A O’Connor (0-3fs), K Mackey (1-2), O Cahalane (0-2)
Subs S McCartan (0-2) for K Mackey (38), C O’Sullivan for C Healy (47), M Cahalane for H Looney (50), C Finn (0-1) for F Keating (52), É Murphy for O Cahalane (60+1).
Galway S Healy; D Higgins, R Black, R Hanniffy; AM Starr, Á Keane, C Hickey (0-1); N Hannify, N Kilkenny; A Donohue (0-4), N McPeake, O Rabbitte; C Dolan (0-8, 7fs), N Mallon (0-1), A O’Reilly (0-2)
Subs O McGrath for A O’Reilly (48), N Niland for N Hannify (60+2), A Hesnan for N O Rabbitte (60+3).
