U16 A All Ireland Ladies Football Semi Final

U16 A All Ireland Ladies Football Semi Final

Cork 3.14 Kerry 3.05

 

Sheer heart , determination and the emergence of
born leaders was the difference between these two sides when they
met in the Munster final two weeks ago. In Dromcollogher, Limerick
on Sunday it was the prowess of Ballingeary’s Rhona Buckley at full
forward and the excellent display at midfield by Mourneabbey’s Ciara
O’Sullivan that broke the hearts of the Kingdom girls. In a veritable
game of two halves Kerry were dominant in the first displaying a
great appetite for work and playing a neat game of possession football.
On the other hand Cork were pedestrian in their approach; bunching
in the forward line, failing to find a

colleague with a pass or over hitting passes beyond the full forward
line. Eileen Counihan the Kerry full forward was proving a handful
for Cork full back Vickie Power and she had the ball in the Cork
net on the 2nd and 20th minute thanks to superb support play from
Louise Ni Muircheartaigh. While Cork enjoyed as much possession
they were guilty of shootin g some very poor wides and , but for
excellent defence from Anita Enright,Sandra Conroy & Sile Johnson,
they might have found themselves further than 2.04 to 0.07 behind
at half time. 

Whatever was said at half time worked because Cork emerged a
totallytransformed unit. With Ciara O’Sullivan sweeping up behind
midfield and the impressive Grace Kearney & Marissa O’Callaghan
supplying good ball to the forward line it wasn’t long before
the Rebel’s imposed themselves totally. Full forward Rhona Buckley
hit Kerry with a brace of goals in the 38th,47th & 53rd minute
having finally got free of the shackles of her marker. The Ballingeary
player was simply sublime receiving plenty

support from Grace Kearney and Katie Sheehan.On the other hand
her opposite number was kept quiet for the entire second half
with a commanding performance on the edge of the square from Beara’s
Vickie Power. Indeed Kerry were held scoreless over the entire
second half apart from a point and a consolation goal in the final
five minutes from the hard working Julieanne O’Connell.

Cork now go forward in defence of their All Ireland crown where
they play Dublin or Tyrone. They may yet create history as no
county has ever won u 14, u16 & Minor in the same year .

Cork: C Murphy E Harrington V Power A Enright S Conroy S Johnson
C O’Callaghan (0.01) C O’Sullivan (0.02) A O’Donovan E Aherne
(0.01) G Kearney (0.03) M O’Callaghan K Sheehan (0.01 R Buckley
(3.05 (0-2f) C Keohane (0.01)

Subs:J McCarthy for C O’CallaghanC McGrath for Keohane A Scally
for O’Donovan

Kerry: D O’Brien T O’Sullivan A Lyons J O’Connell (1.01) E O’Carroll
D Hallisey S O’Sullivan L Twomey A Leonard L Ni Muircheartaigh
(0.01f) AM Healy A Foley E Murphy (0.01 E Counihan (2.02) A O’Sullivan

Subs: M Cronin for Murphy M Curran for T O’Sullivan

Referee: T Lennon ( Dublin)

Terry O’Brien Cork ladies football