Galway v Cork – Final: U16 All Ireland Championship

U16 A Championship

Galway v Cork
Date: 29 Jul, 4:30pm
Venue: UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny
Referee: Liz Dempsey

FT Score: Galway 1-7 Cork 0-11

2023 Galway U16 team. Photo credit: INPHO

MATCH REPORT

By Sarah Gaughran Galway Camogie PRO
The Galway U16 team’s dream of winning the All-Ireland U16A Championship final were dashed on Saturday when they lost out to Cork by the slimmest of margins in UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Galway can be extremely proud of their performance considering they led for a large period of the game. They also lost out to Cork in the group stages by 14 points. The girls must be commended for their resilience and the way in which they bounced back from the defeat in the group stages.

It was Cork who started the brightest with a point from their star forward Rachel Murphy in the opening minute. Emily Lawless replied two minutes later to leave the sides deadlocked. Laura Walsh got her name on the score sheet by the 8th minute, but three Cara O’Brien two frees and a 45m free between the 9th and 20th minutes left Galway two points to the good heading into the final ten minutes of the half. Katie Lawless got her opening score of the game on the 21st minute to continue Galway’s scoring spree. Murphy and O’Brien exchanged scores on the 23rd and 28th minutes while Catherine Murphy had the final say of the half for Cork to leave it Galway 0-6 Cork 0-4 heading into the half time break.

Galway knew that a massive second half performance was required in order to get over the line as they were playing into a stiff breeze in the second half. Scores seemed very hard to come by in the opening few minutes of the second half. But on the 40th minute, Emily Lawless broke through the Cork defence and was brought down in the Cork square. A penalty was awarded to Galway and Katie Lawless stepped up and struck the ball into the back of the Cork net. This goal seemed to spark a fire in Cork as they took hold of the game in the final quarter scoring seven points without reply. 5 points, three through frees from player of the match Murphy, a point from Walsh and a point from substitute Clara Murphy between the 45th and 58th minute left Cork two points to the good heading into the final few minutes. Katie Lawless clawed back a free to leave the minimum between the sides. Galway put extreme pressure on the Cork backs in added time, but the Cork backs held firm to deny Galway the equalising score as it finished Cork 0-11 Galway 1-7.

The Galway girls will be extremely disappointed to have lost out after their much-improved performance. They will look back on some of the missed chances that they had that may have helped in getting over the line but the girls can learn from this. For some girls, they will be moving onto the minor ranks while some girls are still underage for next year. They will have learnt so much from all the games throughout the year that will help them develop as players.

GALWAY: L Horan, C Fahy, A Morgan, M Ní Lionsaigh, E Dillon, R Kilkenny, R Gardiner, L Behan, K O’Driscoll, M Rodgers, K Lawless (1-2, 1-0Pen, 0-1F), C O’Brien (0-4, 0-2F, 0-1 45m), E Lawless (0-1), M B Cosgrove, E Barrett. 
Substitutes: E Ryan for Ní Lionsaigh (h-t), K Flaherty for O’Brien (51), C Burke for Barrett (55), A Morrissey for Rodgers (60).

CORK: E Honohan, S Cunningham, A Cagney, C Ryan, M Lombard, A Cussen, L O’Shea, A McAuliffe, A Cottrell, R Murphy (0-7, 0-2F, 0-1 45m), K O’Sullivan, Catherine Murphy (0-1), M O’Brien, A Mulkerrins, L Walsh (0-2). 
Substitutes: Clara Murphy (0-1) for O’Sullivan (h-t), T Goulding for Catherine Murphy (39), J Murphy for O’Brien (50).

ADDITIONAL:

MATCH PHOTOS

MATCH PREVIEW

by Sarah Gaughran, Galway PRO
The Galway U16 team are in All Ireland action this Saturday when they will take on Cork in the final in UPMC Nowlan Park at 4:30PM. Galway have had a mixed run in the lead up to the final with 3 wins a draw and one loss. This left Galway in 2nd place in the group.

Galway began with an away trip to Wexford on the 7th of May. It was a tough battle for the girls starting off and they came out with a draw with the game finishing 1-10 a piece. Their next game was at home to Tipperary. The Galway girls improved massively during this game running out easy victors against Tipperary. However, Galway were unlucky to lose their captain and full forward Laoise McGrath to a cruciate ligament injury after scoring 1-1 during the game. Galway continued their winning streak in their third group game when they overcame Limerick in a stiff contest in Fedamore. The team had 5 weeks without a game due to the Junior Certificate. They were back in action on the 2nd of July where they faced their counterparts for the All Ireland Final. Unfortunately, it was the only upset that the girls suffered on their way to the final as they lost out to Cork. They had to pick themselves up again for a trip to Kilkenny the following week. The team got their campaign back on track with a victory to leave them second in the group. They faced Tipperary, the team they got their first victory in the campaign against in the Semi Final. Goals from Emma Barrett, Mary Brigid Cosgrove (2) and substitute Katie Flaherty help Galway in booking their place in the All Ireland U16 Final.

Galway have it all to do against a strong Cork side. Cork have dominated the underage championships in camogie over the last number of years but if Galway put in a performance and get the goals like the goals they got against Tipperary in the semi final they will be in with a great chance. McGrath is a massive loss for the Galway girls, but they have great strength and dept in the panel with a lot of girls seeing game time over the campaign. It is all to play for in Nowlan Park but the Galway girls are going in well prepared and have improved since their last outing against Cork. Galway will be looking to go one better on Saturday.

ADDITIONAL:

TEAM

(Back L- R) Laoise McGrath (C), Sarah Nolan, Caoimhe E Fahey,  Aoife Flynn, Ciara Power, Grace Tarpey, Róisín Cahill, Caoimhe S Fahey, Emily Lawless, Aoife O’Meara,  Amy Morgan,  Leah Horan, Katie Flaherty, Emma Deely, Emily Dillon, Cara O’Brien, Amanda Conway, Maeve Ní Loinsigh, Caoilin Corban, Aoife Scarry, Aoife Jordan, Emily Noone  
(Front L – R)  Eva Ruane, Evie Ryan, Leah Behan, Mia Rodgers, Rebecca Gardiner, Róisín Casey, Eva McGlynn, Allison Morrissey,  Emma Barrett, Mary Brigid Cosgrove, Danielle Grealish, Alannah Farrell, Katie Lawless, Ruth Kilkenny, Clodagh Burke, Tarron Kilkenny, Kerri O’Driscoll (VC), Kate Murray     
Photo credit: Michael Gough  

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