2023 VERY National Camogie Division 1: Round 3

Galway v Clare
Date: 4 Mar, 3:30pm
Venue: Kilbeacanty
Referee: Gavin Donegan

FT: Galway 1-14 Clare 0-13

• PLAYER PROFILES: Senior team
• MANAGEMENT: Senior team management

MATCH IMAGES

Photo credit: Don Soules Photography

MATCH REPORT

By Sarah Gaughran, Galway Camogie PRO
The Galway Senior camogie team recorded back-to-back victories in the Very Camogie league after they overcame a tough test against Clare in front of a great crowd in Kilbeacanty on Saturday. A goal from Shannon Corcoran in the first half helped in laying down the foundations for the victory. While Galway had a strong first half performance, they had to weather a very strong second half from Clare.

Galway captain, Shauna Healy opened the scoring for Galway on the 4 th minute with a point from play. This was quickly followed up with points from Ailish O’Reilly and Rachael Hanniffy to leave Galway 0-3 to 0-0 ahead after 4 minutes. Lorna McNamara opened Clare’s accounts on the 10th minute with a free. Dolan responded with a free a minute later before Clare got three unanswered points through Rebecca Foley, a McNamara free and a point from Muireann Scanlon to leave the sides deadlocked after 19 minutes of the first half. Galway really took the game to Clare in the last 10 minutes of the 1st half when they managed to score 1-4 without reply. Dolan got Galway’s first score in 10 minutes when she slotted over the free. Then Sabina Rabbitte laid off a great pass to Shannon Corcoran and Corcoran made no mistake in sticking the ball in the back of the Clare net for her first goal at senior level for Galway. Dolan, through a free, Jennifer Hughes from play and O’Reilly from play, all added points to Galway’s tally before the half time whistle to leave it Galway 1-9 Clare 0-4 at the break.

Galway started the brightest in the second half when Rabbitte, a player who was winning and laying off a lot of ball during the game, laid off a pass to Dolan and Dolan split the posts to extend Galway’s lead. McNamara then registered Clare’s first score in 16 minutes when she added another free to her tally while Claire Hehir added a fantastic long-range effort a minute later to help reduce the deficit. Dolan and McNamara exchanged free on the 35th and 37th minutes while Dolan added another from play on the 38th minute to leave 8 between the sides. Clare came into their purple patch between the 43rd and 51st minutes as they added 5 points without reply to their tally. McNamara, two through frees and one from play, Foley and Hehir with another long range free all chipped in as Clare brought the deficit down to 3. Galway looked like they were struggling during this period as they struggled to get the ball passed our half forward line. Dolan, through a free, got Galway’s first score in 18 minutes. Chloe Morey insured that it was a one score game on the 62nd minute when she got her name on the scorecard for Clare but Aoife Donohue popped up with the insurance score for Galway on the 63rd minute to ensure Galway would make it back to back wins in the Very Camogie League. Clare did have their chances to level the game but a missed free and the Galway defence stood strong to ensure they did not get in for a goal in the final moments of the game.

Galway will be delighted to have back-to-back wins after three though weeks of games. They now have a break until the 18th of March when they will take on Dublin at home. They will be hoping that during this time that they will be able to get Niamh Hanniffy’s injury sorted as she went off early in the first half. Galway will be somewhat happy with their performance but they will need to ensure they are getting more scorers on the board in the second half as they look to try and book a place in the league final over the coming weeks. Dervla Higgins, Shauna Healy and Roisín Black all worked well in the defence for Galway while up front, Carrie Dolan, Shannon Corcoran, Sabina Rabbitte and Aoife Donohue all tried hard as a unit to try and create scoring chances for Galway. While for Clare Claire Hehir, Niamh O’Dea and Ellen Carey preformed very well for the Banner while upfront, Lorna McNamara, Rebecca Foley and Muireann Scanlan were always threating when they were within their scoring range.

GALWAY: F Ryan, S Healy (0-1) (C), R Black, D Higgins, R Hanniffy (0-1), E Helebert, K.A Porter, A Donohue (0-1), J Hughes (0-1), C Dolan (0-8, 0-5F), N Hanniffy, A Keane, S Corcoran (1-0), S Rabbitte, A O’Reilly (0-2)
Subs: L Casserly for Hanniffy (15mins), L Kelly for O’Reilly (54 mins), C Hickey for Hughes (54mins),
N Niland for Corcoran (61 mins), O Rabbitte for Dolan (64mins)

CLARE: D Murphy, S Daly, C Hehir (0-2, 0-2F) (JC), C Grogan, C Kelly, N O’Dea (JC), E Casey, C Carmody, A Walsh, L McNamara (0-8, 0-6F), J Daly, M Scanlan (0-1), R Foley (0-1), A O’Loughlin, A Keating.
Subs: Z Spillane for Daly (HT), Chloe Morey for Amy Keating (42mins), A Ryan for Casey (44mins).

ADDITIONAL:

• Galway starting to find their groove in league campaign – Connacht Tribune

SENIOR TEAM

2023 VERY National Camogie Division 2: Round 2

Galway v Wexford
Date: March 4, 1pm* (*Note time change)
Venue: Kilbeacanty
Referee: Ciarán Groome

FT: Galway 1-09 Wexford 1-13

• PLAYER PROFILES: View intermediate team profiles
• MANAGEMENT: Intermediate management team

MATCH IMAGES

MATCH REPORT

By Sarah Gaughran Galway Camogie PRO
The Galway Intermediate team suffered another defeat in the Very Camogie League Division 2B over the weekend. The side that saw 9 changes to the starting 15 from the opening game against Kilkenny are a side that a still getting used to playing with each other but it was great to see a better second half performance in comparison to the Kilkenny game the weekend before when they failed to score in the second half.

Mairead Dillion almost got in for a goal within the opening 30 seconds when she capitalised on a mistake by Loren Doyle in the Wexford defence, but the ball went marginally wide. Sal Doyle got the opening score of the game with a well taken point from play on the 3 rd minute. Niamh Horan did very well to win the resulting puck out. She took on the Wexford defence and laid off the ball to Aisling
Donnellan and Donnellan made no mistake in sticking the ball over the bar to leave the sides level after 4 minutes. Spellman put Galway into the lead 2 minutes later when she struck over a placed ball for Galway. Karen Tomkins laid off a nice cross field ball to her midfield partner, Aoife Doyle and Doyle brought the sides level again. Onnagh Doyle put Wexford in front with a close range free on
the 12 th minute while Sal Doyle split the posts after a well taken score from 45m out on the 18th minute to 2 between the sides. Katie Donohue got Galway’s first score in 14 minutes with a close-range point. Doyle added two more placed balls to her tally on the 22nd and 25th minutes. Galway almost had a goal chance on the 26th minute when Horan’s shot hit the post, but Donohue’s ground strike went just wide. Donnellan laid off a lovely pass to Horan on the 29th minute who was coming along the sideline and Horan split the posts for her second score of the day. Dillion nearly got in for Galway’s first major on the 30th minute but the shot was well defended by the Wexford defence. Spellman and Doyle exchanged frees before the end of the half to leave it Wexford 0-7 Galway 0-5 heading into the break.

Doyle, through a free and Grace Roche, from play extended Wexford’s lead to 3 in the opening few minutes of the second half. A poor clearance on the 41st minute from the Wexford defence only found Galway substitute Chole Broderick and Broderick from 45m struck the ball over the bar. Doyle, through a placed ball and Ava Lynskey, from play, exchanged scores on the 43rd and 44th minutes to leave it 0-9 to 0-6 in favour of Wexford heading up to the midway point of the half. Caoimhe Byrne and Sal Doyle from play added points from play to Wexford tally while Chloe Reilly from a very tight angle from play and Spellman from a free both added to Galway scoresheet to leave 3 between the sides with 8 minutes left on the clock. A long ball in by Lettie Whelan was fumbled by Laura Freeney in the Galway goal and Ciara Butler capitalised on the mistake to and stuck the ball into the back of the Galway net to extend Wexford’s lead to six. Galway did not give up and joint captain Ava Lynskey took on the Wexford defence, she then laid the ball off to her sister Caoimhe, Caoimhe then lobbed a high ball into the square and a miscommunication between corner back, Kelly Anne Dempsey and Emma Keily in the Wexford goal meant that the ball ended up in the back of the Wexford net. Doyle got the insurance score for Wexford on the 56th minute through a 45 meter free to ensure Wexford would run out 4 point winners on the day. Galway did create another goal opportunity on the 58th minute but Lynskey’s shot was well blocked down by Keily in the Wexford net.

While it wasn’t the result that Galway wanted, they should be much happier with their performance this week. It will take a few more games before the girls get used to playing with each other but they were much improved on Saturday. While they did not get in for any goal opportunities last week, they will be happier to have created plenty of goal opportunities this week. For Galway, Reitseal Kelly, Joanne Daly, Katie Mannion, Rachel Hughes, Niamh Spellman and Chloe Reilly tried hard while for Wexford Emma Keily, Loren Doyle, Derbhla Doyle, Grace Roache, Karen Tomkins, Oonagh Doyle and Sal Doyle were some of their top performers on the day. Galway will now have to play an on form Cork team in two week’s time in Cork.

GALWAY: L Freeney, E Burke, R McPhilbin, L Burke, R Kelly, K Mannion, J Daly, A Lynskey (JC), R Hughes, K Kennedy (JC), N Horan (0-2), N Spellman (0-3f), A Donnellan (0-1), M Dillion, K Donohue (0-1)
Subs: C Reilly (0-1) for Donohue, C Broderick (0-1) for Kennedy, M Gannon for Donnellan, A Rock for Burke, M Howley for Burke, C Lynskey (1-0) for Horan

WEXFORD: E Kiely, K.A Dempsey, L Doyle, S Furlong, L Fortune, D Doyle, G Roche (0-1), A Doyle (0-1), K Tomkins, N Higgins, L Whelan, O Doyle (0-7, 0-6F, 0-1 45M), C Butler (1-0), S Doyle (0-3), C Byrne (0-1)
Subs: A Byrne for A Doyle, N Higgins for Byrne, E Farrell for Furlong, E Hunt for O Doyle, A McCrea for Fortune

INTERMEDIATE TEAM

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