All-Ireland Minor final preview - Cork V Laois

CORK LADIES FOOTBALL ALL-IRELAND MINOR FINAL
CORK V LAOIS JULY 17 BIRR, 3PM

It will be far from cold in Birr tomorrow when the Cork minors turn
on the heat, to deny Laois a shot at All-Ireland glory. This is
Corks third consecutive year in the final, having lost to Galway
in 2002, they came back to defeat Mayo in 2003 and they find themselves
in the driving seat once again. The Rebels’ showed their prowess
two weeks ago in the semi final against Galway coming out on top
7-9 1-4.

It was a game of text book end to end movement and it reiterated
the punters reasons for backing Cork all the way. The age profile
of ladies football makes it very difficult to bring players together
for training at minor level. Twelve of the team lined out with the
senior and junior squads Monday night in the first round of the
Munster championship, three played in last Saturday’s under 16 All-Ireland
final and four for the Cork camogie team last weekend also.

“It’s difficult when the girls are competing at so many levels and
also in other sports. We’ve been short players for awhile but we’re
back together as a group and we’ve the work done”, said Coach Charlie
McLoughlin. When asked what their chances are he replies, “We’ll
give it our best shot. Laois are a good side, we know that because
we played them in the semis last year. But we showed what we’re
capable of against Galway and I’ve no doubt we can do it”.

Verdict: Cork

CORK MINOR TEAM: C. O’Donoughue, K. Foley, E. O’Riordan, R.
Buckley, C. Walsh, N. Kelly, G. O’Flynn, T. Galvin, M. O’Neill,
B. Corkery, M. Murphy, S. Burns, L. O’Mahoney; O. Murphy, A. O’Sullivan,
A. Murphy, L. Power, K. Richards, C. O’Sullivan, C. Daly, L. McSweeney,
L. Harrington, C. McCarthy, N. Canty, A. Dempsey, C. O’Connell,
E. Dunne.
Management: Fr Kelleher, C. McLoughlin, C. O’Sullivan, M.
Power.

MINOR ALL-IRELAND HISTORY SINCE 2000

2003 Winners Cork Runners up Mayo
2002 Winners Galway Runners Up Cork
2001 Winners Waterford Runners Up Tyrone
2000 Winners Tyrone Runners Up Waterford

Mary White (PRO, Cork Ladies Football)