The dream of the treble is alive and well Donard see off Gleenaly

at Glenealy after four minutes. Clare Whelan added a second a minute later and then scored a goal, having been set up by Margaret Whelan.

The full-forward herself then got in on the scoring with a point in the 10th minute and five minutes later she added a goal. 2-3 to 0-0 and things were looking very gloomy for Glenealy.

At this stage it was noticeable that Laura Manley was dropping back deep to take some of the heat off her beleaguered colleagues in defence. That certainly helped as the champions scoring rate dropped. They added just three points in the second quarter – one from Clare Whelan and two more from Kelly O’Neill. However, for Glenealy, it was a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul as they did not open their own scoring account until a minute before the break, when Laura Manley landed a long range free.

Whatever was said during the Glenealy team talk at half-time, it certainly seemed to have an effect. While they did not have the same scoring power up front as their opponents, they upped their game to the extent that they won that second half on a score line of 0-6 to 0-4.

Perhaps a little complacency had crept into the Donard play early in the second period, but they found it difficult to shake off when they realised that their opponents were a different team in this half.

Laura Manley and Erynn O’Brien put in a great stint and between them landed all of their sides scores – two points apiece from play and two from Laura Manley frees.

In addition their defence tightened considerably, goalkeeper Jessica Driver dealt very capably with anything coming her way and the chances of the opening half were no longer there.

In fairness to Donard they never panicked and kept picking off the occasional point chance as it arose. In addition they used five subs and gave a run to the maximum number permitted.

Mary O’Neill, Grace O’Neill, Aoife Grace and Kelly O’Neill were their point scorers in this half as they ran out winners on a comfortable score line of 2-10 to 0-7.

While never in real danger of being caught, the champions will be conscious of the fade out in the second half and of the need to avoid that in future. Glenealy were very disappointed with their first half display and were heartened that they gave such a better account of themselves after halftime.

Scorers – Donard–The Glen: Clare Whelan 1-2, Mary Whelan 1-2, Kelly O’Neill 0-4, Aoife Grace 0-1, Grace O’Neill.

Glenealy: Laura Manley 0-5, Erynn O’Brien 0-2.

Donard–The Glen: Lynsey Walsh; Carmel Whelan, Mary O’Neill, Katie Daynes; Clare Grace, Nora O’Neill, Hannah O’Neill; Aoife Grace, Grace O’Neill; Karen Walsh, Emer Miley, Lyn Quinlan; Kelly O’Neill, Mary Whelan, Clare Whelan. Subs: Sophie Mills for Mary Whelan, Breda Walsh for Carmel Whelan, Zena Carey for Emer Miley, Sarah O’Keeffe for Lynsey Quinlan, Andrea Kealy for Clare Whelan.

Glenealy: Jessica Driver; Emer Cruise, Ailbhe Dowling, Lottie Cullen; Ellen Doyle, Lisa Hogan, Niamh O’Brien; Laura Manley, Erynn O’Brien; Zoe Devlin, Kasey Doyle, Aoibheann O’Neill; Aoife Weir, Jade O’Connor, April Dickenson.