Galway v Clare – 2023 Senior All-Ireland Camogie Championship

June 17, 2023

2023 Glen Dimplex Senior All-Ireland Camogie Championship, Round 2

The Camogie Association has designated this round of fixtures for the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland championships as PRIDE Round. Read more here.

Galway v Clare
Venue: Cusack Park, Ennis
Date: 17 Jun 2023, 5pm
Referee: Barry Nea

Mascot: Tess Healy, Craughwell Camogie Club

FT: Galway 1-13 Clare 0-13

MATCH PHOTOS

Photo credit: Don Soules Photography. View all match images

MATCH REPORT

By Sarah Gaughran, Galway Camogie PRO
The Galway Senior Camogie team made it two wins from two in the Glen Dimplex All Ireland Senior
Camogie championship after a titanic battle with Clare in Cusack Park in Ennis on Saturday. Siobhán
McGrath’s goal at the beginning of the second half was crucial to the victory as Galway overcame
Clare by three points.

It was Galway who started the brightest with Niamh Hanniffy laying off a pass to Sabina Rabbitte and Rabbitte made no mistake in slotting the ball over the bar to give Galway the opening score of the game inside the opening 30 seconds. Lorna McNamara replied for Clare a minute later with a free to leave the sides level. Aoife Donohue was fouled on the 5th minute with Carrie Dolan pointing the resulting free while Niamh Hanniffy broke through the Clare defence on the 10th minute to leave Galway two points ahead. Two McNamara frees on the 12th and 14th minutes saw the sides deadlocked for the second time, heading into the halfway point of the half. Ailish O’Reilly laid off a pass to the oncoming Niamh McPeake on the 18th minute and McPeake who was making her Championship debut with the senior team made no mistake in slotting the ball over the bar. Aine O’Loughlin got Clare’s first score from play on the 21st minute but McPeake restored Galway’s lead 3 minutes later. McNamara added two more free’s to Clare’s tally before the end of the first half while Dolan pointed one free for Galway to leave the sides deadlocked at 0-6 a piece heading into the half time break.

Hanniffy set up Donohue in the opening 30 seconds of the second half to restore Galway’s lead again. Then less then a minute later, a long ball in from Sarah Dervan found Siobhán McGrath in the inside forward line and McGrath made no mistake when she took on her marker and blasted the ball into the back of the Clare net to give Galway a four-point lead. Clare responded well however with points from McNamara through a free and a well taken point from play from Orlaith Duggan to leave two between the sides after 34 minutes. Dolan added another free to her tally on the 39th minute while a minute later, McGrath helped in extending Galway’s lead when she pointed a well taken point while she was down on her knees. Aine McLoughlin had a goal opportunity on 41st minute but it was brilliantly stopped by Fiona Ryan with McLoughlin getting on the rebound to put the ball over the bar. Dolan and McNamara exchanged frees on the 45th and 46th minutes. Rabbitte got her second score of the day after she received a great pass from Donohue while McGrath teamed up with substitute Sarah Spellman on the 51st minute and Spellman made no mistake in striking the ball over the bar to leave five between the sides. Another McNamara free and a point by Niamh O’Dea reduced the deficit to 3 with 3 minutes of normal time remaining on the clock. Dolan and McNamara exchanged frees at the end of the game to leave it Galway 1-13 Clare 0-13.

Galway will be delighted to have grinded out a victory against a tough Clare side. While there were some fantastic pieces of play, there is still plenty of room for improvement. They will be concerned with the number of scoreable frees that they gave away to Clare. The win sees Galway top of the table heading into their final game while for Clare, they will enter a must win fixture against Cork in two weeks’ time. Niamh Hanniffy, Dervla Higgins, Aoife Donohue, Aine Keane and Carrie Dolan were some of Galway’s top performers on the day while for Clare, Susan Daly, Clare Hehir, Aine O’Loughlin and Lorna McNamara tried hard for the Banner County. Up next for Galway is a trip away to Down in two weeks’ time.

GALWAY:
F Ryan, S Healy, R Black, D Higgins, A Keane, E Helebert, S Dervan, A Donohue (0-1), R Hanniffy, S
Rabbitte (0-2), C Dolan (0-5F), N Hanniffy (0-1), S McGrath (1-1), A O’Reilly, N McPeake (0-2)
Substitutes: S Spellman (0-1) for Helebert (39mins), S Corcoran for O’Reilly (50mins), S Gardiner for Donohue (59mins), J Hughes for Dolan (59mins)

CLARE:
D Murphy, C Grogan, S Daly, C Kelly, C Morey, C Hehir, A Walsh, C Carmody, L Daly, O Duggan (0-1),
N O’Dea (0-1), Z Spillane, M Scanlon, A O’Loughlin (0-1), L McNamara (0-10F)
Substitutes: A Keane for Daly (HT), E Kelly for Spillane (36mins), A Keating for Scanlon (43mins), A Ryan for Morey (48mins), L Ryan for Keane (53mins)

ADDITIONAL: