Firepower gives Dublin final edge
Cork face huge task to dislodge champions
CORK and Dublin have become the old firm of Ladies football. Between them, they have carved up the last 15 All-Ireland senior titles – a run that will extend to 16 this afternoon in Croke Park. This will be the fifth time the pair have met in the final over the past seven seasons.
So, there will be a touch of familiarity to what will play out at headquarters. However, while the Leesiders were the dominant force of the game for over a decade, collecting an extraordinary 11 titles between 2005 and 2016, that mantle has since passed to Mick Bohan’s Dublin side, who are searching for four All-Ireland titles in a row today.
Indeed, only a half-dozen survivors from the last Cork side to win the All-Ireland will start today. But there is plenty of experience among those players. Centre-forward Ciara O’Sullivan will be playing her 10th All-Ireland final while her sister Doireann and talented attacker Orla Finn are both playing in their
‘DUBLIN ARE THREATENING TO DOMINATE, JUST LIKE THE MEN’S SIDE’
seventh. Goalkeeper Martina O’Brien will start her fourth final.
It is on that experienced quartet that Ephie Fitzgerald might lean if they are to find a way past an exceptional Dublin side who are threatening to dominate their game in the same way that their male counterparts have done.
‘There is a maturity in this Cork team that we haven’t had for a while,’ says Fitzgerald, who led the Leesiders to their 2016 All-Ireland triumph. ‘The likes of Ciara and those girls have maturity, but what they have done as a team this year is take more ownership themselves of the team.
‘Sometimes, you’ll find in Ladies football that they rely on every word of the manager or coach. We want the girls to take responsibility. When they cross the white line, it is their team, so they go out and make the decisions and play it as they see it. We have had a lot more of that this year. The girls are way more vocal than they have been.’
Cork’s All-Ireland semi-final success against Galway was overshadowed by the controversy over the 11th hour switch of venue, but what was lost in the fall-out was how professionally the Rebelettes went about their job.
In a forward line that includes Finn, O’Sullivan and Saoirse Noonan, who will be looking to erase her FAI Cup disappointment with Cork City, the Rebels possess threats in many sectors.
They will need to be on their game this afternoon. Bohan’s Dublin represent a daunting challenge for any side. They are unbeaten in 20 Championship matches. The average winning margin in those games is more than 10 points. Remind you of anyone?
At one time, Cork were a bogey side for Dublin, having beaten them in senior finals in 2009, ’14, ’15 and ’16. Bohan’s charges finally broke the hoodoo in the 2018 final and franked their recent upper hand in this rivalry by winning the semi-final last year.
It was Dublin’s ability to find the net that was crucial in that semi-final, as their two goals ultimately made the difference. Cork’s campaign this winter, though, has been backboned by their own goal-scoring feats and in the likes of Noonan and Áine Terry Sullivan, who have both scored three goals thus far, they have poachers who can pounce on any sniff of a chance.
Blues skipper Sinéad Aherne, who has shaken off a hamstring injury, has been their top scorer this campaign with 1-13.
She is followed by Carla Rowe with 2-7 and Noelle Healy on 1-5. But the thing that sets Dublin apart is their ability to get scores from anywhere on the field – 15 different players have scored over their three games.
Dublin make one change from their semi- f inal win over Armagh – with Niamh McEvoy replacing Sarah McCaffrey – while Cork are unchanged from the team that accounted for Galway earlier this month.
Cork: M O’Brien; E Meaney, R Phelan, S Kelly; M Duggan, A Hutchings, E O’Shea; M O’Callaghan, H Looney; E Kiely, C O’Sullivan, O Finn; Á O’Sullivan, D O’Sullivan (capt), S Noonan.
Dublin: C Trant; M Byrne, N Collins, A Kane; L Caffrey, S McGrath, S Goldrick; L Magee, J Dunne; N Healy, L Davey, C Rowe; S Aherne (capt), N McEvoy, N Owens.
REFEREE: Jonathan Murphy (Carlow).
■ ALL-IRELAND SFC FINAL: n CORK V DUBLIN
Croke Park, 3.30pm – Live on TG4 and worldwide on the TG4 Player