All-Ireland Ladies Football Intermediate Championship Final: Kerry 3-14 Galway 0-11
Kerry just kept getting up off the canvas. Despite losing All-Ireland finals in 2022 and 2023, the Kingdom refused to allow those gut-punches to become knockout blows. Instead, they got back up.
And in Croke Park on Sunday they delivered an utterly dominant performance to overwhelm Galway and end Kerry’s 31-year wait for an All-Ireland women’s senior football title.
“Perseverance is an awful trait and we have got it in absolute abundance,” said Kerry joint manager Darragh Long afterwards. “We wrote down four items 5½ years ago when we took this job, we have ticked every box as of today.
“Last year we could have thrown in the towel and we were super close. We thought we had run our race. We thought we had asked as much of the girls as we could ask of them. But we sounded girls out and they wanted us back. Unfinished business.”
Kerry had all but dealt with the business at hand in Sunday’s final by the interval, when Aoife Dillane’s goal on the stroke of half-time gave them a 1-8 to 0-3 advantage in front of 30,040 at Croke Park.
Hannah O’Donoghue and Emma Dinneen added second-half goals as the Kingdom claimed a record 12th All-Ireland senior women’s title, moving them one ahead of Cork in the roll of honour.
For Galway, this was the county’s second All-Ireland final defeat in seven days after Padraic Joyce’s men fell to Armagh last Sunday. Galway can only hope their camogie team can salvage some silverware from the wreckage of recent weeks when they face Cork at Croke Park next Sunday.
“It’s disappointing,” remarked Galway manager Daniel Moynihan. “I don’t think we played to the level that we needed to in order to beat a fantastic Kerry team, we needed to hit top form, all 15 players needed to play at their best, and unfortunately we didn’t.”
Kerry had standout performers all over the pitch, Kayleigh Cronin was imperious in the full-back line while Ciara Murphy and Aoife Dillane got through an incredible amount of defensive work.
Mary O’Connell and Anna Galvin both chipped in with scores from midfield while Dineen and Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh brought their shooting boots to Croke Park. The Kerry bench also chipped in with 1-3.
“It is a team game, a panel game. Thirty-five girls there training non-stop but only 20 can play, and that is the hardest thing about management. Leaving girls out is really, really hard,” added Kerry joint manager Declan Quill.
“We saved the best performance for the last day.”
Kerry captain Niamh Carmody opened the scoring with a point in the second minute but when Róisín Leonard replied for Galway moments later it appeared we were set for a closely fought contest.
But from the moment Dineen nudged Kerry back ahead in the fifth minute with a point, the Kingdom led all the way until the final whistle.
Galway went almost 20 minutes between their second and third points – during which time they registered three wides, had efforts blocked down and failed to capitalise on other chances.
During that scoreless period for Galway, at the other end of the field Ní Mhuircheartaigh couldn’t miss – the Kerry forward popped over five successive points to give Kerry a 0-8 to 0-2 lead by the 25th minute.
Leonard finally got Galway moving again on the scoreboard two minutes later but the key moment in the game arrived just before the interval when some nice quick Kerry interplay cut open a gap in the Tribe defence and the move ended with Dillane’s shot looping over Dearbhla Gower and dropping in under the crossbar.
The half-time hooter sounded almost immediately and as Kerry raced towards the dressingroom, Galway trudged off looking shellshocked. Kerry had the momentum before the goal anyhow, but Dillane’s strike landed like a hammer-blow on Galway.
To their credit, Galway scored the first point of the second half but O’Connell replied for the Munster champions and the Kingdom were soon setting the agenda again.
If Dillane’s goal was a hammer blow then O’Donoghue’s 44th-minute strike was the nail in Galway’s coffin.
She was only on the pitch a matter of seconds when she took a neat pass from Ní Mhuircheartaigh, shook off the attention of Kate Geraghty and smacked the ball inside Gower’s near post.
O’Donoghue finished the game with 1-2 off the bench and she also set up Kerry’s third goal with a delicious pass to Dineen in the closing minutes. Dineen showed some lovely trickery, wrongfooting both Gower and Sarah Lynch before tucking home to an empty net.
“I suppose I was here last year in an awful state,” added Quill.
“There is massive difference in sport between winning and losing, we were involved with a situation last year, we were not happy with our performance, we just got totally overrun by Dublin.
“So, jeez, the emotions outside, just to see all the parents, the girls celebrating, our own kids outside on the field. Ah look, winning is everything in sport at this level really.”
Kerry, they just kept getting up.
Kerry: Ciara Butler; Eilís Lynch, Kayleigh Cronin, Aoife Dillane (1-0); Aishling O’Connell, Ciara Murphy, Deirdre Kearney; Mary O’Connell (0-1), Anna Galvin (0-1); Niamh Carmody (0-1), Síofra O’Shea, Niamh Ní Chonchúir; Danielle O’Leary, Emma Dineen (1-2), Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (0-6, 4f). Subs: Hannah O’Donoghue (1-2) for Ní Chonchuir (43 mins); Lorraine Scanlon (0-1) for Kearney (48 mins); Katie Brosnan for Carmody (52 mins); Cáit Lynch for Dillane (54 mins); Kate O’Sullivan for Ní Mhuircheartaigh (57 mins).
Galway: Dearbhla Gower; Maryanne Jordan, Sarah Lynch, Kate Geraghty; Charlotte Cooney (0-1), Nicola Ward, Aoife Ní Cheallaigh; Mairéad Glynn, Ailbhe Davoren; Niamh Divilly (0-1), Louise Ward, Olivia Divilly (0-4, 2f); Emma Reaney, Leanne Coen, Róisín Leonard (0-3, 2f). Subs: Andrea Trill (0-1) for Reaney (24 mins); Eimíle Gavin for Ní Cheallaigh (38 mins); Marta Banek for Jordan (38 mins); Shauna Hynes (0-1) for Glynn (47 mins); Ailish Morrissey for N Divilly (48 mins).
Referee: Jonathan Murphy (Carlow).
