Éire Óg hold on for
Greystones women capture Junior crown after battle
ÉIRE ÓG AN TOCHAR 3-15 6-5
WITH a heavily bandaged leg, Amy Murphy stood up to take the last kick of the game to send this Junior battle to extra-time after her An Tochar side and their Éire Óg counterparts had produced a stunning encounter for 60-odd minutes.
Murphy had been exceptional all afternoon, bagging 1-2 while engaged in a fierce midfield battle with Meadbh Deeney and Claudia Randals. The kick was about 30 yards out on the preferred side for a left-footer and facing into the Rednagh Hill end of Joule Park Aughrim. Nothing easy about this kick. Pressure. Tired legs.
Up stepped Murphy but the effort went astray and when Ciarán Walshe sounded those shrill blasts of his whistle the Roundwood woman dropped to her knees as Éire Óg rejoiced. The Greystones women had held on for a magical victory.
Éire Óg manager Ray McTague paid a special tribute to Amy Murphy after the game.
‘That’s down to tiredness and that’s all it is (the miss). She’s an absolute credit to her club and her county. It was a privilege for me to coach a team to beat her is the best compliment I can give her. I said that to her. She’s a great example for everyone to watch,’ said the softly spoken McTague.
The word ‘rollercoaster’ best sums up this superb Junior decider in Joule Park Aughrim last Saturday afternoon. Up and down the field raged the battle between the women of Greystones and their Roundwood opponents. Superb goals flew in from all angles, nine of them in total, and here’s a statistic for you: An Tochar had one wide, one single miss, and that arrived at the death when Amy Murphy’s effort flew wearily wide of the Éire Óg upright.
Not one single person in the county grounds would have bemoaned extra-time. In fact, every extra minute would have been considered a privilege to witness if it was anything like the previous 60.
After scoring 10 goals in their semi-final war with Baltinglass, McTague’s warriors knew they weren’t going to rack up that number of majors given that Katie Coleman was in goals for An Tochar. Ray McTague says that the Roundwood number one is a superb netminder and she was his major concern coming into the decider.
‘Everyone coming into the match was talking about her (Amy Murphy). To be honest my own thoughts were on their goalkeeper. They have an absolutely brilliant goalkeeper. When we played them before the team were talking about Amy Murphy and I kept saying ‘the goalkeeper’, because that goalkeeper is spot on. One on one you will not beat her, she’s absolutely class.
‘We played Roundwood in the first round of the championship and she saved at least 10 oneon-ones, and that’s how we knew about her,’ he added.
Coleman could do little to prevent Meadhbh Deeney’s opener in the early stages of this battle. An Tochar would quickly reply through Sarah Kavanagh but the Greystones women would rip open a 1-4 to 0-1 lead thanks to two Meadhbh Deeney points and a single from Megan Healy.
However, while they bagged 10 goals in the semi-final they also conceded nine and An Tochar would further exploit that weakness by grabbing six majors over the course of the game, the first from full-forward Marcella Price and followed up rapidly with a lovely lob from Aoife Murtagh to level the game in an instant.
Éire Óg’s ability to create openings for points was obvious all day and they recovered from the two-goal wallop to fire over three unanswered minors from Deeney, after a lovely ball from the impressive Elaina Fusciardi, Rachel Purcell and Megan Healy.
But An Tochar knew the Éire Óg secret and they went for the jugular at every opportunity. Marcella Price rifled home her second goal and Liadh Cronin picked out Amy Murphy with a pass for the midfielder to fire a rocket to the top corner to propel the Roundwood women into a 4-1 to 1-7 lead after 26 minutes.
Moments after Murphy bagged that goal she popped up in her own square to block a shot from Elaina Fusciardi. It said it all in relation to Amy Murphy’s performance on the day.
Back came Éire Óg. A poor An Tochar kick-out was recycled and ended up with the hugely influential Meadhbh Deeney and the county star walloped home to level the game after 28 at 2-7 to 4-1.
A late Elaina Fusciardi point sent McTague’s women in leading by the minimum, but this was anyone’s game.
A Deeney free opened the second half but An Tochar found the Greystones net with a simple tap home from Blaithnaid Morris. Éire Óg made a change of netminder after 37 minutes by sending in Orla Minogue for Katie O’Reilly who had performed well in terms of kick-outs. Ray McTague paid tribute to the starting goalkeeper.
‘Credit to our goalkeeper Katie who stepped in at the last minute. She was there for her kickouts, no fault of her own, we just had to make a change. Roundwood are a great team, great club, absolutely credit to their coaches, their manager, I knew they would be well drilled,’ he said.
A Katie Lawless goal helped Éire Óg open up a 3-12 to 5-1 lead but An Tochar would not be held and they fired over four fine points, two from Jess Scott and two from Amy Murphy, before a stunning goal from Aoife Murtagh opened up a two-point lead for An Tochar at 6-5 to 3-12, with things looking very promising for the Roundwood side.
But Éire Óg started to claw their way back into the game. Meadhbh Deeney from a free won by Rachel Purcell, Deeney from a free awarded against an An Tochar player for playing the ball while she was on the ground levelled the game and a sweet move between Erin Wyley, Iseult Brosnan and Sinead Kelly provided Elaina Fusciardi to fire over what would be the winning score of 2018 Wicklow ladies Junior football final.
An Tochar would attack and win a free. Amy Murphy would take the ball in hand but watch in agony as he effort tailed wide. Despair for An Tochar, pure joy for Éire Óg.
‘The match itself, very exciting, fast-flowing,’ said Ray McTague, ‘I knew it would be tight, I knew it would be the battle of the two great Wicklow midfielders.
‘I knew we had the fitness because we have a right mix of the 16-year-olds who came up two years ago – and we kept them together – mixed with the older vintage, and to gel all them together. For example, Erin Wylie played on the team 10 years ago, Lisa Murphy didn’t get a run today, played 10 years ago, so there’s that gap of 28, 29, 30 up to 34 and then there’s the gap from 16 to 19. It’s a mix. It’s a credit to them. I think they deserve it.
‘I didn’t like the start of the match. I don’t like being ahead and I knew An Tochar would come. I knew we had kicked too many wides, but I knew An Tochar would come at us and by god them came at us.
McTague is a hugely popular figure in Greystones GAA circles. Éire Óg captain Ciara Patrick paid tribute to the Leitrim native in her eloquent speech. Ray said that it was the commitment and the hard work from his side that got them
to where they were on Saturday afternoon.
‘I’m originally from Leitrim and settled in Kilpedder. I was with the boys from under-10 right up. Last year I did the Senior men and the women as well, but the women wouldn’t let me go so I had to keep the two teams going. We gelled it together and kept them going. It’s an absolute credit (to the players). This year, I’m not with the men so I gave it all to the women two nights a week and at the weekends.
‘There’s one thing I want to say about them (the women): we had a league match against Manor Kilbride (at the start of the year) and they were delighted with themselves. And I said, ‘right girls, I trained Senior men last year and this thing about training on Sunday doesn’t work, you get back to me with numbers and I’ll train ye’. They arrived with 17 and three asked permission to go after an hour for part-time work, that’s what I want to say about them, that’s what made the team (commitment). That’s the way it worked out,’ he added.
Scorers - Éire Óg Greystones: Meadhbh Deeney 2-7 (3f), Katie Lawless 1-0, Elaine Fusciardi 0-3, Megan Healy 0-2, Claudia Randals 0-2 (1f), Rachel Purcell 0-1.
An Tochar: Marcella Price 2-0, Aoife Murtagh 2-0, Amy Murphy 1-2, Blaithnaid Morris 1-0, Jess Scott 0-2, Sarah Kavanagh 0-1.
Éire Óg Greystones: Katie O’Reilly; Wendela Zegers, Ciara Patrick, Orla Doherty; Sinead Kelly, Aoife McTague, Eva Moore; Meadhbh Deeney, Claudia Randals; Erin Wyley, Rachael Purcell, Katie Lawless; Shauna Dillane, Elaina Fusciardi, Megan Healy. Subs: Kerianne Hamilton for W Zegers (35), Orla Minogue for K O’Reilly (37), Iseult Brosnan for K Hamilton (56).
An Tochar: Katie Coleman; Molly Hayes, Becky Molloy, Ciara Kennedy; Roisin Belton, Jen O’Gorman, Shauna Murtagh; Sarah Kavanagh, Amy Murphy; Sarah O’Toole, Liadh Cronin, Blaithnaid Morris; Therese Molloy, Marcella Price, Aoife Murtagh. Subs: Laura Kavanagh for R Belton (21), Jess Scott for T Molloy (H/T), Amy Manus for M Hayes (H/T), Izzy Ryle for B Morris (46), Lilian Molloy O’Connor for C Kennedy.
Referee: Ciaran Walshe (Baltinglass)