All the latest news from Cork Ladies Football

DONOUGHMORE 0-7 BALLYBODENS/ST ENDAS 0-9

It’s been two years since Donoughmore ended the season prematurely
and Sunday¹s loss to Ballybodens/St Endas in the AIB All-Ireland
senior club semi final replay was a hard pill to swallow.
O¹Murchu Park, Firhouse Road in Dublin was the venue for
this second bite at the cherry and as was expected the home
side pulled out all the stops when it came to supporters.
The first half is one Donoughmore would rather forget. The
margin of difference between the two periods was mammoth
and although well rectified in the latter, the damage was
already done.

Ballybodens Louise Kelly opened the scoring with just twenty
seconds on the clock before captain Juliet Murphy levelled
proceedings with a free. The only time the Cork side led
was through a Hanora Kelleher point but the advantage was
shortlived as Sarah Denvir notched her first to put matters
on par once again. The All-Ireland champions were quick
to cancel out the offence threats of their opponents by
including an extra player in defence. The intention being
to frustrate and it worked. It was to a certain extent bit
of a gamble as it would limit their attacking options had
they not played it too perfection but that they did and
soon after their rhytem was in full swing. Donoughmore found
themselves under immense pressure defensively with points
coming from Gemma Fay, Natalie Hyland and Orla Scollard.

Centre forward Louise Kelly continued to dominate but it
was Suzanne Hughs who demoralised Donoughmore with a superb
save from a well worked attack finishing from the boot of
Aisling O’ Connor. At the interval the Dublin girls were
surprisingly five points clear of the contenders, 0-7 0-2.

What was said in the dressing room brought a new lease of
life to a Donoughmore team who were struggling to get their
sails going. Born leaders Juliet Murphy and Hanora Kelleher
dictated possession more in midfield and consequently set
up Rena Buckley to open the scoring gates after 23 minutes
of closure. Louise Kelly was securely taken out of the equation
with brilliant defending from Vera Sheehan and Rose Cogan
but she did mange to contribute a point. Points from Juliet
Murphy and Mary O’Connor further reduced the deficit (0-8
0-6) but the lethargic performance in the first was to cost
them the game.

Following the final whistle coach Mossy Barrett said, “We
played outstandingly well from a commitment point of view,
in the second half but unfortunately there are 60 minutes
in a game. “There is an awful lot left in that team and
we will sit down during the week and if every one of those
players decide to stay on then there is no doubt they will
be there or there abouts again”. Ballybodens St Endas will
now play Donaghmoyne in the All-Ireland final in a few weeks
time and are hot favourites to retain their title.

Scorers for Donoughmore: M O¹Connor 0-3, J Murphy 0-2, H
Kelleher and R Buckley 0-1 each.
Scorers for Ballybodens/St Endas: L Kelly 0-3, S Denvir
0-2, J O¹Sullivan, G Fay, O Scollard and N Hyland 0-1 each.

DONOUGHMORE: N Duggan, E Walsh, C O¹Connell, V Sheehan,
R Buckley, R Cogan, H Kelleher, J Murphy, A Barrett, A O¹Connor,
L Barrett, M O¹Connor, L Murphy, L O¹Connell.

BALLYBODENS/ST ENDAS: S Hughes, A Farrelly, N Comyn,
T Allen, S Farrelly, J O¹Sullivan, S White, F Ni Corcorain,
M Farrell, G Fay, L Kelly, N Hyland, O Scollard, C Butterly,
S Denvir. Referee: B Gallagher (Tyrone)

ALL-STAR AWARDS:

On Saturday the TG4/O’ Neill’s All-Star awards take place
in the City West in Dublin. Cork have a whopping ten nominations;
Deirdre O¹Reilly, Norita Kelly (Rockchapel), Briege Corkery
(St Valentines) Amanda Murphy (Beara), Valerie Mulcahy,
Elaine Harte (Rockban), Rena Buckley (Donoughmore), sisters
Ciara and Angela Walsh (Inch Rovers) and captain Juliet
Murphy (Donoughmore).

Sixteen year old Amanda Murphy (Beara) is up for an All-Star
certainly won’t walk away empty handed as Bertie Ahern will
present her with Munster Young Player of the Year. Cork
are expected to take five awards, possibly six but either
way being nominated among the best players his a huge achievement.

The awards will be shown on TG4 on Tuesday 22 November at
8.00pm.