TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Quarter Finals

Ladies Football Previews

TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Quarter Finals

Cork v Mayo, Portlaoise, 4.45pm

Live, TG4

 

The game of the round sees reigning TG4 All-Ireland
Champions Cork take on 2003 winners Mayo at 4.45pm in Portlaoise. 

Cork have not been beaten in competitive action this year and
look by far and away the best team in the Championship to date.
However, Mayo and Cork games have always been tight and Saturday
is likely to be the same. Mayo lost to Cork by a point in last
year’s semi-final while but beat Cork in the 2004 quarter final.

Cora Staunton, arguably the finest ladies footballer of her generation,
is looking forward to the big game and sees this as an ideal place
to gain revenge for last year’s painful semi-final defeat at the
hands of the Rebels.

Staunton claims that revenge is a huge motivational factor. “We
feel like we threw the All-Ireland semi-final away last year as
we led by four points with four minutes to go but lost by a point
to Cork. That defeat is the single biggest motivation for this
team and we feel that if we get over this game our season will
take off,” she said.

Once again Cora Staunton has led from the front, scoring an incredible
0-9 in defeat against Galway in the Connacht final. However, if
Mayo are to beat Cork, they will need other players to keep the
score board busy and an improved performance by their midfield.
Cork’s midfield of Juliet Murphy and Norita Kelly are as strong
a pairing as there is in Ladies football and Mayo must at least
break even here and could try to crowd the middle of the field.

An awful lot will depend in how much Mayo have improved since
losing to Galway. However, with the likes of Valerie Mulcahy,
Amanda Murphy and Mary O’Connor in their attack, Cork seem to
have more firepower than Mayo and their track record to date suggests
they will just about scrape through.

Mayo Ladies SFC v Cork

(D Devine, S Mc Ging, H Lohan, C Mc Ging, C O Hara, N O Shea,
A Loftus C Egan, J Moran, E Mullin , C Heffernan , M Heffernan,
C Mc Dermott, C Staunton, T Mc Nicholas)

Cork Ladies SFC v Mayo

(C O DONOUGHUE, R BUCKLEY , A WALSH , L POWER, G O FLYNN, B STACK
, S O REILLY , J MURPHY N KELLY, N CLEARY , D O REILLY , A MURPHY,
V MULCAHY, M O CONNOR

C CREEDON)

 

Saturday 19th August

All Ireland Senior Quarter Finals

Galway v Meath Portlaoise 3.00pm

Galway and Meath meet in the first semi-final at 3.00pm. When
the sides met earlier this year only three points separated the
teams but since then Galway have improved dramatically while Meath’s
form has dipped.

Despite the Royals poor form, Galway’s midfielder Annette Clarke
is not taking the game lightly. “When you get to knockout
stages everybody is in the same boat. Meath seemed to have an
off day against Laois but it doesn’t matter if you win or lose
the provincial final, you are still in the last eight. The real
competition starts here.”

Galway are one of the strongly fancied teams this year. The core
of the team has experienced the agony and ecstasy of All-Ireland
final day after winning in style against Dublin in the 2004 decider
before losing to a rampant Cork in the 2005 final.

Galway will be boosted by the return of the talismanic Lisa Cohill,
out injured for the best part of two years with a cruciate ligament
problem. Cohill is expected have a big part to play this weekend
after coming on as a sub against Mayo in the Connacht final.

Minor stars Caitriona Cormican and Claire Molloy have added freshness
to the team this season and Galway look well placed to progress
to the All-Ireland semi-finals should they perform like they can.
In Niamh Duggan, Lorna Joyce and particularly Niamh Fahey, Galway
possesses the most balanced attack in Ladies Football.

Meath on the other hand will need to produce the form that got
them to a Suzuki National League Final and will have to be far
more clinical in attack then they were in a wasteful performance
against Laois. They will look to Grainne Nulty, Mary Sheridan
and Gillian Bennett for scores but if Galway open up it could
well be a case of damage limitation.

Galway, Ladies SFC v Meath

(U Carroll, M O’Donnell, E Flaherty, M Glynn, C Cormican, A Daly,
Ann Marie McDonagh, P Gleeson, C Molloy, E Concannon, A Clarke,
N Duggan, G Conneally, N Fahey, L Joyce)

Meath v Galway

(I Munnelly, S Dooley , J Burke, S McCormack, J Rispin, L McKeever,
C McAuley, C O’Shaughnessy, E Lynch, M Sheridan (capt), K O’Brien,
G Nulty, G Doherty, G Bennett, S Bennett,)