Intermediates miss out by the minimum to three-goal Cats

CORK’S intermediate camogie stars came up just short in their All Ireland Final in Croke Park on Sunday.

On a breezy, but otherwise perfect day for the game, Cork looked in control for long periods of the game but ultimately came up short to a side known for being able to find the net when needs must.

Led in the scoring stakes by their talented corner forward, Ciara Holden showed she had an eye for the posts from placed balls as well as from play. Cork opened up much the brighter, taking the game to the cats with some early success. A point from Collins on three minutes set the tone for the early exchanges as Cork looked to capitalise on some early joy.

Kilkenny hit back with a free from Holden on six minutes but the girls in black and amber over elaborated on more than one occasion in pursuit of goals. When Kilkenny players did get in on goal early on (three times) they met with huge resistance from a full back line in no mood to compromise and a keeper that was no mood to concede. Amy Lee gave a wonderful display between the sticks for the rebels batting out player and ball over and over again.

Cork again took the lead a minute later thanks to the accuracy of Rachel O’Shea from the placed ball. O’Shea would add another two points in the opening half with Collins also bagging a brace to go with her first point.

Cork’s half-back line were playing a blinder in the first 30 with Jacinta Crowley and Sarah Buckley dominating the wing forward and centre-back positions respectively. Crowley in particular played really well in the first 30 with some brilliant defensive and attacking play.

For Kilkenny it was left to Holden to keep the scoreboard ticking over as she bagged three frees in the opening period, which accounted for all of her sides scores first half scores.

Cork were deserving of their first half lead (0-7 to 0-3) and looked well on their way to securing their first title at this grade in a decade however the second half would see a different Kilkenny.

Holden continued her one girl crusade on the restart with her side’s first point from play. Less than a minute later the game would have its first goal with Jenny Clifford riffling home a great goal to level things up for the cats who looked like taking a strangle hold of proceedings.

Credit to the rebels they dug deep and with some solid defensive work from the back seven, as well as some poor shooting from Kilkenny they managed to weather the next five minute storm.

Cork then rocked the Cats with a superb goal from Collins who added a point a minute later to open up a four point gap, but Kilkenny were not going to go away and two minutes later wing forward Keeva Fennelly finished with aplomb to bring to game back to the minimum.

A point from Aine Fahy and another goal from Fennelly gave Kilkenny the lead for the first time as they looked to pull away from the Rebels showing all of the scoring prowess that this side became known for coming into this one.

Points from O’Shea and Collins cut the gap to just two as the game headed into the final 10 minutes. Substitute Keeva McCarthy again brought the gap down to the minimum with the clock showing just four minutes remaining.

Try as they may Cork just couldn’t get the vital score to bring this one to extra time as the Rose of Mooncoin rang out around GAA Headquarters.