Dubs miss the point as Cork retain title to make it six in a row

Cork 1-7 Dublin 1-6

DÉJÀ vu. Cork are the All Ireland Ladies Football Champions again. The beat Dublin again. They did it in Croke Park again. They won by a point again and the deserved it, again.

Led on the pitch by Mourneabbey’s Ciara O’Sullivan, Cork fought back from what looked like a losing position to take the spoils in one of the most hotly contested finals in recent times.

O’Sullivan’s contribution to this win was immeasurable as she did plenty grafting off the ball, set up some nice scores and made the vital contribution to Rhona Buckley’s killer goal.

There were many other players of note with Rena Buckley, Briege Corkery, Bríd Stack, Annie Walsh and centre back Deidre O’Reilly all showing well.

Stack in particular played a stormer on the day as she battled with Dublin’s go to player Sinéad Aherne. This was the clash of the game with the rebel girl coming out on the right side of both the battle and the war.

The contribution of Buckley was as usual immense with Corkery’s 60 minute spell, along with her contribution to the team at half time showing that her hunger for the game is as bright as ever.

For Dublin, Aherne was good, even though she was hassled all day by the Stack. So was Niamh McEvoy and Lyndsey Davey who between them added a brace to Aherne’s 1-3.

Be in no doubt, the score-line at the break (0-4 – 0-3) was in no way an accurate measure of the effort put in by both teams in the opening period.

Cork started well and looked to be in control but the rebellettes couldn’t add anything significant to the score line as the Dubs defended.

When Cork had the ball in the first 15 – 20 minutes they looked the more likely to score however the conditions and a resolute blue wall did everything in their power to stop Cork in their tracks.

The second quarter was all about the dubs as they took the game to Cork in a way that the 10 time champions haven’t seen in a while.

Cork struggled to get forward long periods of the first half, in fact if it wasn’t for Briege Corkery and Rena Buckley making the odd floury forward Cork may never have got out of their half. That said, the Rebel defenders held sway over a Dublin side that made some terrific runs forward however handling and some decision, making was their downfall. Dublin led by 0-4 to 0-3 at the turn.

Baked in second half sunshine, Cork opened with some nice intricate play however Orla Finn and Rena Buckley both missed the target inside 90 seconds.

Dublin showed a new found clinical edge to their game with Aherne pointing from a close in free.

Cork came back again with Captain Doireann O’Sullivan breaking past her marker Sinead Finnegan setting up Annie Walsh who finished superbly past Ciara Trant in the Dublin goal.

The major spurred on both sides as this game went up several notches. Dublin had chances to point in the next few minutes but some tenacious defending from the likes of Bríd Stack, Róisín Phelan and Buckley kept the Dubs at bay. The home town side eventually did get back to parity when Niamh McEvoy split the posts after Cork gave the ball away once too often in the middle third.

Both sides were guilty of giving away possession cheaply as the game took on a Basketball feel as the game went end to end.

Cork looked the more likely to win it at this point however it was Dublin that again took the initiative but not for the first time Deidre O’Reilly came to Cork’s rescue.

On the 48th minute Mourneabbey’s Doireann O’Sullivan showed the 34,435 in attendance just what she was capable of with a huge point from distance. Cork then had Orla Finn on the score sheet after a brilliant run from Orlagh Farmer had given her the chance.

Doireann O’Sullivan again hit a monster score for the victors as Cork pushed out three clear before she added to Dublin’s woes with a long range free to move two scores clear.

Dublin threw everything they had at Cork for the next few minutes but hitting three wides on the bounce was never going to help their cause. Cork used all their experience to keep the girls in blue at arm’s length and were able to comfortable take their sixth title on the bounce.

There was late drama when Dublin were awarded a penalty in the last minute which was quickly despatched to the net by Aherne however it was all too little too late as the Rebels brought some joy to a county starved of intercounty success this year. Some in Dublin circles felt aggrieved at the final whistle after it was shown that an 18th minute effort had been incorrectly ruled wide but to be fair it hardly had any impact on the result considering it was so far removed from the final whistle.