High five for Drom & Inch who defeated luckless Clonoulty Rossmore in another county final
FBD Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Final
Clonoulty Rossmore 0-14
The Bernie O'Dowd Cup is back in the hands of Drom & Inch for the fifth consecutive year after they continued their dominance over Clonoulty Rossmore to claim county honours in what was a very close contest during the FBD Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Final in The Ragg last Saturday afternoon.
As has been the case more often than not in this fixture, there was nothing between the sides coming towards the end of play, as Drom & Inch were out on their feet in the final quarter as they tried to hold off a Clonoulty Rossmore team who pushed them all the way once again, but just couldn’t find a way to win and have now lost four county finals in a row to the mid club.
Drom & Inch were comfortably ahead for two-thirds of the game as they held a 2-7 to 0-7 lead by the 40-minute mark thanks in large part to first-half goals from Mary Burke and Miriam Campion but Clonoulty came to life late in the game, outsourcing their opponents 0-6 to 0-1 up to the 60th minute to make it a one-point game.
Try as they might though, it was another case of a chance gone begging for the West club, with the Drom experience and know-how in the big games again proving the be the main difference between the teams.
Playing with the aid of the fairly sizeable breeze in the first half, Drom would have been looking to build up a lead of some description as the elements were big enough to have a say in the result, but Clonoulty stifled their momentum in the first quarter and were all square with their rivals at 0-3 apiece by the 14th minute.
Niamh Treacy was the provider and big influence for those early scores in Drom’s case, scoring the first of the game within two minutes, before setting up Katie O’Dwyer, before playing a part in the lead-up to an Eimear McGrath free in the eighth minute.
However, Clonoulty answered all of those scores with the predictable provider coming in the form of Cait Devane who hit their three scores - one from play - as the West side settled into the contest well.
Drom have been pushed hard at various stages during their run in the knockout stages and have been helped hugely by their ability to get goals and despite a tight beginning to the game, they found the net for their first of the day; Aoife McGrath’s shot for a point dropping short and in the resulting shemozzle just outside the square, Miriam Campion dragged the sliotar out and lashed the ball home from close range.
Both sets of players were going full-blooded into this contest and were set up well at the back respectively, but with the aid of the breeze, Drom were able to get more sights at goal but were let down with some poor shooting as Clonoulty kept in touch with scores from play by Cait Devane and Casey Hennessy to make it just a two-point game with three minutes to go until half-time.
Despite that, Drom struck a big score in the 27th minute to put some distance between the teams with Eimear McGrath providing the vision, hand passing a beauty of a ball across the 21 for Mary Burke to steam onto, and with no traffic in front of her, she strolled in on goal and buried the ball past the helpless Cora Hennessy to give Drom & Inch a 2-4 to 0-5 lead.
That goal would prove to be a huge score by the game’s conclusion as Drom took any potential sting from the Clonoulty Rossmore players after the restart, responding well to two opening points from the West side from Eimear Bourke and Cait Devane (free).
Firstly, it was an Eimear McGrath free in the 37th minute that settled the defending champions down, but they left another goal behind them a minute later when Siobhan McGrath found herself in a two-on-one situation with Cora Hennessy and Miriam Campion to hurl left; but she decided to go for goal herself and fired it high and over the bar. A major let-off for Clonoulty.
Eimear McGrath hit her first score from play in the 41st minute to make it a six-point game which was the biggest margin of the game so far and it looked like it would take a big turnaround for Drom to be denied their fifth title in succession.
But the scars of previous losses wouldn’t allow Clonoulty Rossmore to throw in the towel and they went into another gear in the next 20 minutes, with four Cait Devane points (3 frees) and a point apiece from Courtney and Sinead Ryan putting just one-point between the teams with five minutes of normal time remaining (2-8 to 0-13.
Drom really were taking on water and playing so deep, that it invited pressure from Clonoulty as they couldn’t get out of their half in that time, but they held out well and dug very deep as Niamh Long won a priceless free three minutes into the allotted five minutes of added time, which Eimear McGrath converted to give them some small breathing space.
Clonoulty weren’t done yet though, and with time almost up they had it back to one-point through a converted Cait Devane free, and despite Joe Leahy giving them another minute to find the equaliser, they couldn’t create the chance they needed as the final whistle blew to jubilant celebrations from Drom & Inch who created history in their win.
It will be little consolation for Clonoulty Rossmore after yet another final loss to their bitter rivals in The Ragg, but they were very close to pulling off the win and only for some lapses in concentration at the back for those first-half goals, it might have been a different result as Drom & Inch can now look forward to another tilt at Munster and All-Ireland glory in the coming months.
Scorers: Drom & Inch: Eimear McGrath (0-6, 0-5f); Miriam Campion 1-0; Mary Burke 1-0; Niamh Treacy 0-1; Katie O’Dwyer 0-1; Siobhan McGrath 0-1.
Clonoulty Rossmore: Cait Devane (0-10, 0-7f); Eimear Bourke 0-1; Courtney Ryan 0-1; Casey Hennessy 0-1; Sinead Ryan 0-1.
Drom & Inch: Kristina Kenneally; Maria Connolly, Christina Brennan, Eimear Cahill; Niamh Long, Mairead Eviston, Anne Eviston; Caroline Shanahan, Aoife McGrath; Siobhan McGrath, Mary Burke, Niamh Treacy; Katie O’Dwyer, Eimear McGrath, Miriam Campion.
Subs used: Joanne Ryan for Burke (36, inj); Maureen Ryan for A Eviston (36); Michelle Woodlock for S McGrath (45); Noreen Butler for O’Dwyer (65).
Clonoulty Rossmore: Cora Hennessy; Katie Murphy, Aoife Bourke, Lorna Ryan; Bernadette Ryan, Clodagh Quirke, Eimear Loughman; Kellie Quirke, Sinead Ryan; Kate Ferncombe, Courtney Ryan, Casey Hennessy; Eimear Bourke, Cait Devane, Avril Quirke.
Subs used: Moira Kinane for K Quirke (HT, inj); Katie Ryan for A Quirke ( 45).
Referee: Joe Leahy (Moyne Templetuohy)