Galway v Cork – Round 1, 2023 Senior All-Ireland Camogie Championship

June 3, 2023

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2023 Glen Dimplex Senior All-Ireland Camogie Championship, Round 1

Galway v Cork
Venue: Kenny Park, Athenry
Date: 3 Jun 2023, 5pm
Referee: Ray Kelly

Full-time score: Galway 1-12 Cork 0-12

Mascot: Zara Finn, Ballinderreen Camogie Club

MATCH VIDEO: Galway v Cork (Camogie Association)
MATCH PHOTOS: Galway v Cork (Don Soules Photography)

Photo credit: Don Soules Photography

MATCH DAY MASCOT

Zara Finn, Ballinderreen Camogie Club

MATCH REPORT

By Sarah Gaughran, Galway Camogie PRO
The Galway Senior Camogie team made it three wins from three against Cork this year when they overcame Cork in the opening round of the Glen Dimplex All Ireland Senior Camogie Championship on Saturday in a sun-drenched Kenny Park. Galway had a battle on their hands with Cork hitting them hard early on, but their experience helped in getting them over the line after a strong second half showing.

It was Galway who opened the scoring inside the opening 45 seconds. Sarah Spellman was fouled out on the 65m line and Carrie Dolan, who is always so accurate with her frees, made no mistake in sticking the ball over the bar. Chloe Sigerson, who seemed to be given a lot of space from Galway in the opening few minutes, levelled the sides on 2 minutes. Sigerson delivered a fantastic cross field ball a minute later to Katrina Mackey and Mackey slotted the ball over to give Cork the lead. Dolan was fouled on the 6th minute and pointed the resulting free to leave the sides deadlocked once again. Then Cork seemed to be getting a hold on the game, scoring the next three points without reply. Points from Mackey and Sigerson and a 45m free from their captain Amy O’Connor, left them three points to the good after 11 minutes. It is fair to say that Cork were delivering some fantastic, high quality balls into their forwards and it was posing a threat to the Galway defence.

Aoife Donohue and Ailish O’Reilly teamed up on the 14th minute with O’Reilly getting Galway’s opening score from play. Donohue replied with her first of the day too on the 16th minute when she saw off a very heavy tackle to leave one between the sides. O’Connor got her second of the day through a free to extend Cork’s lead. O’Connor did break through for a goal chance on the 21st minute but her pass was brilliantly intercepted by the Galway keeper, Fiona Ryan but O’Connor did get on the end of the deflection to give them a point and to bring their lead back to three. Dolan tried to reduce the deficit further with two frees on the 27th and 30th minutes. Sigerson and Dolan exchanged points during the 6 minutes of injury time while. Cork had the final say on the half however with Mackey slotting over two more points deep into injury time to leave Cork 0-10 to 0-7 ahead, heading into the halftime break.

Galway really needed a big performance in the second half after their below par performance in the opening half. Galway started very well out of the blocks in the second half and held Cork scoreless for the opening 20 minutes. Dolan had two frees pointed in the first two minutes of the half to reduce the deficit to the bare minimum. Siobhán McGrath, who made her first appearance for Galway this year, got her name on the scorecard on the 41st minute and she brought the sides level. The game was there for the taking now just like it has been in their previous two meetings. Dolan through a free and McGrath from play put Galway into the lead for the first time since the opening minute of the game and this left them in the driving seat. Cork had missed serval frees throughout the half as they had several different players take them on the day, but Mackey tried to settle the ship for Cork with a well pointed free from near the sideline to leave one between the sides. However, on the 24th minute, a well worked team effort that began with a pass out of defence from Dervla Higgins who found Niamh Hanniffy, Hanniffy found Siobhán Gardiner along the wing and Gardiner took on the Cork defence, lobbing the ball passed Amy Lee with McGrath getting the final touch to ensure the ball ended up in the back of Cork net. Galway remained scoreless for the rest of the half while Mackey did add another free to Cork’s tally deep into injury time, but it was Galway who emerged victorious on a scoreline of Galway 1-12 Cork 0-12.

Galway will be delighted to have opened their campaign with a win. While they underperformed in the first half, they turned the tables at half-time, putting the pressure on Cork and this enabled them to grind out a victory in very hot conditions. Galway will be impressed with the way in which their defence held strong in the second half and how the players upfront worked hard to win frees and to get scores from play. Cork on the other hand will look back at their missed chances. They wide count kept creeping up in the second half from their missed free chances and they never looked like threating the Galway goal in the second half either. Galway will now have to face Clare on Saturday the 17 th of June in Clare where they will look to make it two wins from two.

GALWAY: F Ryan; S Healy, R Black, D Higgins; S Gardiner, E Helebert, R Hanniffy; A Donohue (0-1), N Hanniffy; S Rabbitte, S Spellman, A Keane; C Dolan (0-8, 0-7F), S McGrath (1-2), A O’Reilly (0-1).
Subs: S Dervan for Keane (58), S Corcoran for O’Reilly (63), N McPeake for Rabbitte (65), A Kelly for Spellman (68).
CORK: A Lee; M Murphy, L Coppinger, M Cahalane; A Healy, L Treacy, I O’Regan; S McCarthy, H Looney; C Sigerson (0-3), F Keating, C Healy; A O’Connor (0-3, 0-1 45M, 0-1F), O Cahalane, K Mackey (0-6,0-2f).
Subs: S MCartan for O’Connor (39), E Murphy for O’Regan (47), A Smith for Healy (59), C Finn for Cahalane (63), H Ryan for Healy (66).

ADDITIONAL: