07 July 2009 Cork canter, causes countrywide------ consternation Share this Article 0 0 0 Shares! 0 Shares! Cork canter, causes countrywide—— consternation. By Fr Liam Kelleher Cork 6-15 Kerry 0-9. Cork Senior Ladies sent out a message loud and clear from Bruff on Saturday last, that will send waves of consternation wafting to the the morale of would be pretenders to their crown. Cork when they settled after the first quarter were simply awesome, strong in defense , supreme at Midfield and ruthless in attack and all that added up to a demolition of Kerry, to the tune of a 24 point drubbing. No team could have lived with this irrepressible form. Full credit to Kerry for trying their best, but as soon as Deirdre O’Reilly rifled the net, with an opportunist goal after 14 and a half minutes, Cork never looked back. Kerry strove manfully to stay with the pace for the opening quarter and gave as good as they got, to be on level terms, bu that simply was as good as it got for them, they simply ran out of puff and had no answer to Cork after the break. The score line was tight enough enough at the short whistle, but the gap grew increasingly wider as the half progressed with a litany of scores some, of which have been rarely witnessed, on a football field in any grade men or women. There seems to be no limit the excellence of this particular squad and the only pity is that there were just few hundred people present, to watch such a finely tuned performance. On Sunday the crowd was about 10 times the size in Newbridge to watch Mourneabbey been edged out in a thriller in the Feile under 14 final by Ballyboden St Endas. Inspiration Elaine Harte continues to inspire as Cork’s net minder, she made one stunning save and coped admirably with everything that came her way. There was also a much better variation of her kick outs something that has obviously been worked on, to improve the performance even more. The 6 backs were rock solid and rarely put a foot wrong. Geraldine O’Flynn moved back to corner back to take over from a recovering Linda Barrett. When you consider that Geraldine started her Cork Senior career back in 2002 as a 15 year old, the day after giving a player of the match performance the day before in Cork’s under 16 All-Ireland win. She managed to score 9 points, it shows the versatility of the players. Angela Walsh was again at her imperious best and Rena Buckely was as accomplished as ever. Outside them Briege Corkery, another convert from the forward department, had a quietly efficient game with the ever consistent Brid Stack anchoring the defense, beside her Ciara O’Sullivan another converted forward settled in well in her championship debut role Ruled the roost. The Center field partnership of Juliet Murphy and Norita Kelly was awesome. Their workrate was phenomenal and it was great to see Norita Back to her best after last years injury woes, in the end the player of the match accolade could have gone to any of the 15, but there was all round acclaim for Norita, for so long the unsung heroine of this vital sector of the field. What can one say about the forwards after the early jitters, they were phenomenal on the night. Amy O’Shea revelled in her role on the half line, while Capt May O’Connor led by example and had one of her best games ever in leading Cork to their 6th Munster title on the trot. Nollaig Cleary roamed all over the field and must have covered more ground than most. Deirdre O’Reilly is always lethal and Rhona Buckley is growing in stature with every game, made a compelling Championship debut. Valerie Mulcahy was on fire once again and even at this stage looks well on the way to the golden boot award for the championship after her 2-5 tally. It was great to see Laura McMahon back after recovering from her serious knee injury last year. Mairead Kelly recovering from a similar injury took her goal chance well when introduced. Eammon Ryan will be well pleased with his charges who looked fresh and relaxed after a long lay off, he will know well how to cope with a similar break until their next game. What of Kerry? they tried hard to the end and their young team must have been mesmerized by the pace and intensity of the Cork girls right up until the final whistle. Richie O’Connor controlled the game sensibly and did his job sensibly, without fuss or bother, helped by 2 teams intent on playing football. Cork Panel Elaine Harte, Rena Buckley, Angela Walsh, Geraldine O’Flynn,Ciara O’Sullivan, Brid Stack, Briege Corkery, Juliet Murphy, 0-2 Notria Kelly Nollaig Cleary, 0-1 Mary O’Connor capt, 0-5 Rhona Buckley, 1-2 Valerie Mulcahy,, 2-5 Deirdre O’Reilly.1-0 Amy O’Shea, 1-1 Linda Barrett, Roisin O’Sullivan, Louise Coholan. Linda Barrett, Aisling Barrett, Mairead Kelly, 1-0 Annie Walsh, Ann Marie Walsh, Aine Sheehan, Carmel McCarthy, Sile O’Callaghan. Laura McMahon. Share this Article 0 0