All-Ireland heroes return to the Mardyke | Stephen Barry
UCC 4-14
NUIG 4-6
In the 24 years since the foundation of the ladies football club, UCC has never had it so good. Always a nursery for the best of Cork and Kerry raw talent, the UCC ladies footballers last won the O’Connor Cup in 1990. Three years later Kerry won their last national crown and it took the Rebelettes until 2005 to capture their first All-Ireland. However with a young Kerry side returning to Croke Park this year, UCC can now choose from the cream of the Cork and Kerry crops, having ended their O’Connor Cup famine in March.
On the first Sunday in October, it was Cork who took their seventh title in eight years with a sixteen points to seven win, which saw four current UCC students climb the steps of the Hogan Stand, and five Kingdom ladies return to their lectures distraught.
For Cork, Orlagh Farmer and Ciara O’Sullivan staffed the wing forward positions with the pair combining to win an early free which put Cork into a lead which they would hold until the end. All-Star nominee, O’Sullivan got to share her fourth All-Ireland success with her sisters, one of whom, Róisín, an unused sub on the day, lifted the O’Connor Cup for UCC. Rosin was joined on the bench by students, Áine Hayes and Elanor Ahern, and UCC assistant coach, Grace Kearney.
No doubt that the Cork man on the line too knew the importance of college football in their development, Eamonn Ryan having been the college’s GAA Development Officer for seven years and inducted into the UCC Hall of Fame. After his side’s seventh title, he remembered that one loss in the last eight years which keeps driving them on: "We threw one away down in Banagher and that would be still grating. That would be like a pebble in our shoe and that motivates us to keep going."
He went on to heap praise on his record-breaking players: “They are a special bunch of footballers, but as people they love playing and they like winning, and I think if it was the other way around, they mightn’t be as successful.”
On the losing side five students lined out as part of a youthful Kerry team. Corner-backs Cait Lynch and Aoife Hayes did their best against the waves of Cork attacks and have been rewarded with All-Star nominations along with corner-forward Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh, who disappointingly failed to score from play and was sin-binned towards the end. Emma Sherwood and Megan O’Connell also started for the Kingdom, but were forced to do plenty of back-tracking against a rampant Cork half-back line.
It must have been a bit of a landing for those All-Ireland finalists who returned to the Mardyke for UCC’s season-opening league game; from a crowd of 16,998 to a gathering that struggled to beat single-figures on a slippery Tuesday evening.
In truth there was an obvious gulf in class between the Leesiders and NUIG in spite of the Galway side’s spirited early resistance. Áine Hayes made the error in defence, with her risky clearance kick blocked down by Deirdre Brennan; a few quick handpasses later and Teresa Mullins had fired the ball to the net.
UCC responded well scoring 1-4 without reply, Ní Mhuircheartaigh spinning around her marker before shooting left-footed to the net for the goal.
Defensively UCC looked vulnerable and a misplaced kick out led to the away side’s second goal of the game, Anna Finnegan finishing off the move, before Ailish Ward kicked the sides level with a free.
With Ní Mhuircheartaigh co-ordinating the UCC attack, they went on another scoring burst of 1-4, the same woman shooting high into the net for her second goal.
UCC looked comfortable, 2-8 to 2-1 up at the break, but Finnegan grabbed NUIG’s third goal after nonchalantly side-stepping Elaine Dee to slip the ball into the net. This flicker of hope was soon extinguished as Ní Mhuircheartaigh sealed her hat trick with an emphatic finish after again turning her marker.
The lead was stretched to eleven before the Tribeswomen gave their final kick with star player, Brennan scoring a point followed by a goal after a long solo run.
Yet again the Mardyke-based side went straight down the field for a goal in reply, Helen Finn’s speculative shot finding the net.
It was a mere training ground exercise for UCC with Ní Mhuircheartaigh standing head and shoulders above the rest, clocking up a tally of 3-6 before she was replaced with 10 minutes to go.
Remarkably Ciara O’Sullivan’s recognition at April’s Sports Star of the Year awards was only the fifth award to a ladies footballer, ranking the club in a tie for fifth in the list of the most recognised female sports with female table tennis players having racked up the same number of awards. No doubt this current crop of top players, not only in their college but in the entire country, will look to redress that balance in the coming years.
UCC: Elaine Dee; Donna Smyth, Sinéad Guiney, Laura Dunne; Emma Kelly, Samantha Lambert, Áine Hayes; Alison Taylor, Megan O’Connell (0-1); Katie O’Dea, Joanne Downs (0-1), Orlagh Farmer (0-2); Kelly Hackett, Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (3-6), Clodagh Walsh (0-1). Subs used: Leanne Barrett (0-2), Laura Sheeran, Tara Maguire (0-1), Katie Spillane, Helen Finn (1-0), Thelma O'Sullivan, Rachel Barrett.
NUIG: Niamh Ryan; Amy Rohan, Niamh Friel, Teresa McGrath; Marie Rafferty, Rhona Julian, Deirdre Foley; Aoife Reilly, Ciara McGarty; Nicola Kilgarriff, Eilish Ward (0-5), Deirdre Brennan (1-1); Teresa Mullins (1-0), Anna Finnegan (2-0), Sarah Donovan.