Dublin put a stop to Cork U-16's

All-Ireland Under 16 Final.

Dublin foil Cork’s historic bid. By Fr Liam Kelleher

Dublin 5-16 Cork 1-10.

Cork’s bid for the three in a row All-Ireland under 16 titles
and clean sweep of All-Ireland underage titles was shattered at
Cashel on Saturday. Cork never got out of the blocks and Dublin’s
sustained brand of attacking, possession football, had the Cork
dream almost buried by half-time as they led 2-10 to 1-3. Dublin
had 1- 4 on the scoreboard through Noelle Healy, Natalia Hyland
Sinead Cullen 1-0 and Deborah Geraghty 0-2, before Rhona Buckley
opened Cork’s account with a point from a free. That sparked
a revival for Cork as Miss Buckley added 2 more points and Grace
Kearney was at the end of a fine move to shoot to the net. That
was as good as it got for Cork. Dublin again took over and scored
1-6 without reply.

That left Cork with a mountain to climb in the 2nd half and the
task looked even greater when Dublin scored a goal and a point in
the opening minute. Cork to their credit went on all out attack
and pounded the Dublin defence for 20 minutes, some sterling defending
and a string of brilliant saves including twice from a penalty by
keeper Hannah Tyrell denied Cork the goals they badly needed. Hannah
was later named player of the match. Dublin’s ploy of playing 2
defenders on Rhona Buckley worked for them and with Corks main scoring
threat curbed they were fighting a losing battle.

They did score 7 points through Rhona, 0-3. Claire Keohane 0-2 Eleanor
Ahern 0-1 and Ciara O’Sullivan 0-1 but without goals their
number was up. Dublin broke away for 2 late goals and a brace of
points to give a more lopsided effect to the scoreboard which Cork
scarcely deserved for the effort they put in especially in the 2nd
half. There was no denying Dublin were by far the better team on
the day and no doubt they will savour this victory, after suffering
at the hands of Cork in previous All-Ireland

finals.

Scorers:

Dublin Sinead Cullen 2-2 Natalia Hyland 1-2 Noelle Healy 1-1 Aisling
Johnson 0-4 Deborah Gegarty 0-4 Niamh McEvoy 1-0 Amy Connolly 0-1
Sinead Loughra 0-1 Sinead Goldrick 0-1.

Cork. Rhona Buckley 0-6 Grace Kearney 1-0 Claire Keohane 0-2 Ciara
O’Sulllivan 0-1 Eleanor Aherne 0-1

Fr Liam Kelleher