Heartache for camogie team in Croke Park

ALL-IRELAND JUNIOR CAMOGIE FINAL

Dublin 1-12 Kerry 0-6

DUBLIN lifted the Kathleen Mills Cup, after a fully deserved ninepoint victory over Kerry in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship Final played out in Croke Park but Kerry gave absolutely everything they had and left no stone unturned in their quest for victory.

Ultimately the Dublin girls had far too much pace and power for Stephen Goggins side. Kerry forwards did struggle to get on the ball for large periods of the game and that would have frustrated the Kingdom management, as realistically Kerry were going to need goals to have any chance of victory.

Dublin started with ferocious intensity and set out their stall to attack and try and claim an early goal to put Kerry on the back foot from the get go. It was Dublin who opened the scoring, with Aoibhe Dillon finding the target with a short range free and It was a case of third time lucky for Dillon who had missed two earlier frees.

Kerry needed a score to settle and it duly arrived courtesy of midfielder Patrice Diggin after Laura Collins was fouled.

Dublin set out their stall to grab a goal early on as mentioned above and the goal arrived in the 15th minute, when a fabulous ball from Laoise Quinn found Aoife Bugler, who turned Niamh Leen and finished to the net. To concede a goal against Dublin at any code in Croke Park is always a hammer blow and it takes a lot of courage to recover from the set back.

Kerry had not got the firepower up top to deal with the concession, with the Kerry forward line young and inexperienced as Stephen Goggin referenced after the game.

Patrice Diggin responded with a free for Kerry to close the gap to two points, which was cancelled out shortly after by Aoibhe Dillon’s place ball effort.

Dublin had more to offer and added three points from play, along with a further free from Dillon to give themselves a seven point advantage heading into the interval. This was a crucial stage of the game as Kerry had reduced the deficit to a single point heading into the last ten minutes of the opening half and would have been well in the game if they could have tagged on a few further scores.

Dublin seized the opportunity though and an excellent effort from long range courtesy of Laoise Quinn on the stroke of half time gave her side a strong half-time cushion and left Kerry with a mountain to climb, as the Kingdom were not creating scoring opportunities.

Patrice Diggin carried Kerry on her own in the second half, with Laura Collins also battling hard, but other than that the second half was very much dominated by Dublin. Diggin opened the second half scoring with a place ball effort, before Sinead Wylde responded for Dublin. Diggin added another free after the same player was fouled but unfortunately for her side they could not get any closer to Dublin than six points for the remainder of the game.

Aoife Bugler tapped over a further free and the game was very flat as a spectacle, with the small crowd in attendance coming to the conclusion that Dublin were certs for victory.

Diggin’s 56th minute place ball effort turned out to be her sides final score of the game, as three late scores from Laoise Quinn, Sinead Wylde and substitute Emer Keenan gave Shane Plowman’s side a fully deserved nine point victory.

For Kerry this marks the end of what was a progressive year for camogie within the Kingdom, which ultimately ended in disappointment. The fact that the outcome was never really in doubt, will be hard to digest for the Kingdom faithful, as a very well organised Dublin team were never really put under any real defensive pressure.

Stephen Goggin took the opportunity to give some of the players as possible a taste of Croke Park on All-Ireland final day, which should stand to them in the long term and it’s very possible that this young Kerry team will be back playing in Croke Park in the not too distant future.

DUBLIN: Kathryn Kantounia; Eimear O’Riordan, Niamh Gleeson, Sinead Murphy; Emma Barron, Deirdre Johnstone, Caoimhe Ni Mhaolagain; Hannah O’Dea, Sinead Wylde (0-2); Caragh Dawson (0-1), Aoibhe Dillon (0-3, 3f), Aoife Dooley; Aoife Walsh, Aoife Bugler (1-03, 2f), Laoise Quinn (0-2, 1f). Subs: Louise O’Shea for Dillon (38), Evelyn Twomey for Dooley (56), Laura Walsh for Bugler (61), Emer Keenan (0-1) for Walsh (63).

KERRY: Aoife Fitzgerald; Liz Houlihan, Niamh Leen, Michelle Costello; Aine O’Connor, Sara Murphy, Eilish Harrington; Orla Young, Patrice Diggin (0-5, 5f); Caoimhe Shanahan, Laura Collins (0-1), Aoife Behan; Jessica Fitzell, Jackie Horgan, Norette Casey. Subs: Rachel McCarthy for Harrington (25), Elaine Ryall for O’Connor (41), Alannah Whelan for Casey (45), Kate Buckley for Shanahan (55), Julianne O’Keefe for Fitzell (59).

REFEREE: Alan Doheny (Laois)

but the intervening period before half time was crucial as five unanswered Dublin points gave Shane Plowman’s side a seven point interval advantage,

Stephen Goggin was pleased with his sides second half effort and believes nothing went right for his Kerry side throughout.

“Look, we just said it’s only a seven point game and the way I’d look at is in hurling seven points is nothing, so I’d really just go for it and see where it takes us and in fairness to the girls they tried their heart out, just was kind of one of those days nothing really came off like balls jittering out of the hands and stuff like that and I suppose that’s the occasion and everything. They’ll learn from it, they’re all very young so I’ve no doubt they’ll be back again like.”

Kerry did not create enough in the second half to trouble Dublin so seven points was always going to be a tough deficit to claw back giving the circumstances.

The fact that all but one of the starting 15 hail from the Clanmaurice club, giving this more of a local feel.

That is in comparison to Dublin where a wide range of clubs are represented, however that is the norm with a city team.

Clanmaurice and Kerry did their county proud all year without question and the future is bright for Kerry camogie.

Goggin was delighted with the support his side received on the biggest day ever for Kerry camogie.

“You can just see the crowd of people up from Kerry to watch them today. There’s always been 100, 120 people there like. There was definitely 1000 people up from Kerry today so that’s great, that’s only going to be good for the girls and there was a lot of young girls up watching that so they’re going to want to achieve that as well some day to be playing out in Croke Park.

“It’s a massive factor like, it’s great because if you get to an All-Ireland final you know it’s going to be on in Croke Park like it’s a massive incentive.”

It wasn’t to be for Kerry camogie on the day, but this young Kerry side will be back in the final in the not so distant future, with An All-Ireland camogie success due in the not too distant future.