Mighty Monageer!
Double scores win in Junior ‘A’ final
MONAGEER-B’VOGUE 0-10 CLONGEEN 0-5
MONAGEER-BOOLAVOGUE took home the Junior ‘A’ camogie championship title with a five-point win over Clongeen in Oylegate on Sunday.
In a relatively tight and defensive match, the victors had slightly more firepower than their opponents as they ground out a double scores win.
Indeed, Clongeen’s major Achilles heel was their lack of scoring options. With Geraldine Curtis pointing all of her side’s scores, it was clear she needed help from others if they were to keep up with their rivals.
They struggled to get going early on and it certainly didn’t help their cause being 0-6 to 0-1 down after 23 minutes.
After Síona Nolan and Curtis traded points in the first five minutes, Monageer-Boolavogue scored five unanswered as Clongeen went 22 minutes without a response.
Leah Wall and Michelle Kehoe scored from opposite sides of the pitch while Michelle Gahan fired over an impressive point from distance.
It almost got a lot worse for Clongeen in the 18th minute, but Mandy Finn produced an astonishing save to deny Rosemary O’Loughlin.
Considering the gap which was forming between the sides at this stage, this save proved vital in keeping them in the game.
Nolan and Yvonne Walsh then extended the lead before Curtis added two important late first-half points to get Clongeen back in some form of contention.
She also had her own shot on goal well saved by Gráinne McCabe before the break.
What may have turned out to be crucial for Monageer-Boolavogue was scoring the first point of the second-half.
O’Loughlin’s early effort just gave them an extra bit of daylight to survive Clongeen’s surge.
Curtis and Nolan scored frees within a minute of one another before Nolan’s ’45 put five between the sides for the first time since the 28th minute.
Curtis scored her fifth and final point just before the 50th minute, but a seven-minute delay caused by the injury to substitute Leanne O’Grady unfortunately stopped any momentum Clongeen were gathering in its tracks.
Captain Anna Murphy added her only score as Monageer-Boolavogue reached double figures eight minutes into additional time, and two minutes later John O’Rourke ended the tie with the Enniscorthy District side being crowned deserving champions with five points to spare.
Monageer-Boolavogue: Gráinne McCabe; Ciara Gahan, Orla Gahan, Ellen Gahan; Emer McCabe, Sarah Figgis, Orla Stafford; Síona Nolan (04, 3 frees, 1 ‘45), Anna Murphy (capt., 0-1); Mary Breen, Michelle Gahan (0-1), Yvonne Walsh (0-1); Leah Wall (0-1), Rosemary O’Loughlin (0-1), Michelle Kehoe (0-1). Subs. - Emma Moorehouse for Wall (45), Julie Gahan for Breen (62), Ruth Doran for Walsh (66), also Annmarie Moorehouse, Emma O’Dowd, Patricia Breen, Sinéad Gahan.
Clongeen: Mandy Finn; Ciara Mythen, Sinéad Whelan, Karen Rochford; Caroline Butler-Hallissey, Amy Eustace, Shannon McDonald; Laura Redmond, Sarah Jane Eustace; Claire Eustace, Marcia Sinnott (capt.), Emer Cahill; Trina Sinnott, Geraldine Curtis (0-5, 3 frees, 1 ‘45), Phillipa Mulligan. Subs. - Leanne O’Grady for Mulligan (31), Niamh Waters for O’Grady (57), also Samantha O’Grady, Karen Eustace, Róisín Murphy, Hazel Redmond, Charlotte O’Farrell, Aine Breen, Stephanie Curtis.
Referee: John O’Rourke (Shamrocks).