TG4 All-Ireland Ladies’ SFC quarter-finals
Galway 3-7 Dublin 1-12 (after extra-time)
GALWAY’s Nicola Ward said they won’t lack motivation as they prepare to take on Cork in the TG4 All-Ireland SFC semi-final after dethroning reigning champions Dublin in an epic contest at Parnell Park on Saturday evening.
“I think we owe Cork one back. I’m sure it will be another ding-dong battle, as it always is. I think we’ll enjoy this one and appreciate it because a lot of the time we can always fall short on the wrong end, so it’s nice when you get days like this,” said the Galway defender.
They never let Dublin build a big lead and struck late in extra-time when Aoife O’Rourke fired home the decisive goal.
“We’ve played Dublin down through the years,” she added. “I suppose we’ve missed them in the championship stages, but in league games, this year they just pipped us by a point. Last year we beat them down in Tuam and in the 2019 All-Ireland there was a goal in it. We knew we could match them. I think belief, we touched on that during the week as well.
“There’s no point coming here thinking we’re going to stand down to the All-Ireland champions. We had to come and we had to go hell for leather with them, one-on-one. We played football. Both teams did, fair play to them.”
Dublin manager Mick Bohan, who was without injured players Carla Rowe, Orlagh Nolan and Kate Sullivan, hinted that his term may be coming to an end.
“I certainly know it’s time for me to put a bit more time in at home. I’ve been missing a lot, somebody has to cover for that. Maybe it’s someone else’s time, we’ll see,” he said.
“I thought we just weathered the storm and it would have been obviously a fabulous character win, but in fairness to Galway they stuck at it. The first two goals, we had won the initial tackles, spilled the ball and normally we’d pounce, but that’s what we’re trying to figure out. We kind of played with the jitters that we normally don’t see from them. That was a knock-on effect of losing a few players. It stabilises the ship and that wasn’t there today.
“We’d have huge respect for Galway, we always had. I think the Clonberne crew in particular, when it went to extra-time I thought they were excellent. I thought Nicola Ward was superb in extra-time.”
Galway led by 2-2 to 1-4 at the interval, with Roisin Leonard getting both of their goals. Hannah Tyrrell converted a penalty in between for the All-Ireland champions.
Dublin regained their lead with the help of two points from Anabelle Timothy and Tyrrell. The latter score was immediately preceded by the sin-binning of Galway wing-back Aoife Ni Cheallaigh and in her absence, Owens and Tyrrell points either side of another dead-ball special by Leonard had the holders within reach of a last-four spot.
Galway refused to give in, however, and points from substitute Ailish Morrissey and Leonard meant that an additional 20 minutes were required to produce a winner.
Dublin led 1-12 to 2-7 at the start of the second half in extra-time and were once again in a strong position to push on for victory but Galway kept in touch and sealed a semi-final spot when O’Rourke finished a good move to the net in the dying moments of a gripping contest.
Scorers for Galway: R Leonard 2-3 (0-3f), O Divilly 0-3 (3f), A O’Rourke 1-0, A Morrissey 0-1.
Dublin: H Tyrrell 1-5 (1-0 pen, 0-4f), N Owens 0-2, N Donlon, S Goldrick, J Dunne, A Timothy, S Aherne 0-1 each.
Cork 1-17 Waterford 2-4
CORK manager Shane Ronayne said they will need to tighten up their defence for their TG4 All-Ireland semi-final showdown against Galway.
But he was pleased with their attack as they saw off Waterford at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh to set up a semi-final meeting between the two sides who were relegated from the top flight of the Lidl National League.
“We would be very happy with a lot of that performance,” said Ronayne. “1-17 is probably one our big scores in a tight game this year. We would happy with a lot of it. Most of the time, we were very good, defensively. Had a couple of lapses for the two Waterford goals. So, that is something we will have to work on.
“Galway will certainly be looking at that and seeing those opportunities. We can’t let those opportunities happen the next day.
“I think for at least 50 or 60% of that game, our tackle count was excellent. We really slowed them down and that is something we have been working on.
“Look, we laid down the gauntlet at half-time about our shooting. Our shooting wasn’t good enough in the first half. We were ponderous on the ball at times up front. In the second half we were excellent, we went after their kick-outs and we were excellent. We are very, very happy this evening.”
Waterford began without a single Ballymacarbry player in their starting fifteen including top scorer Kellyann Hogan who is away travelling.
Emma Murray fired the visitors in front but a dominant Cork responded positively with Aoife Healy, Emma Cleary, Laura O’Mahony and Abbie O’Mahony making it 0-4 to 0-1.
Waterford remained a threat however, as Emma Murray grabbed her second point before a swift move ended with Katie Murray netting a superb goal.
The Rebels, guilty of squandering numerous chances, changed ends 0-6 to 1-2 ahead after Máire O’Callaghan and Emma Cleary efforts helped steady nerves.
A third-quarter surge that yielded an unanswered 1-4 was the foundation for Cork’s eventual win with Hannah Looney getting the goal.
Clodagh Carroll got in for a late goal for Waterford but Cork’s advancement to their ninth semi-final in ten years was never in doubt.
Scorers for Cork: H Looney 1-1, E Cleary 0-4, K Quirke (1f), L O’Mahony 0-3 each, A Healy, A O’Mahony, M O’Callaghan, E Kiely, S McGoldrick, L McDonagh (1f) 0-1 each.
Waterford: C Carroll 1-1, K Murray 1-0, E Murray 0-2, E Fitzgerald (1f) 0-1 each.
Kerry 0-16 Meath 0-8
JOINT-MANAGER Darragh Long says Kerry, runners-up for the past two years, are progressing steadily in their bid for glory in this year’s TG4 All-Ireland SFC title race.
They saw off the 2021 and 2022 champions Meath in Tralee on Saturday by double scores and Kerry, the joint most prolific winners of the competition who are without a crown since they won their eleventh back in 1993, moved one step closer to ending the famine.
“That was a very good performance,” said Long, who manages the team with Declan Quill. “We’ve been building nicely. People have questioned us an awful lot again this year but we know what we’ve been doing. We’ve been training hard behind the scenes.
“In the last few games we had a brilliant second half in the Munster final, Ballybofey was a bit of a stumbling block, the Waterford game was a really good performance but this was a step up again against a really good Meath team.
“Especially against the breeze in the first half; to go in just a point down was down to the backs as they were outstanding. It was one of those days where it’s hard to be a forward but stuff doesn’t go unnoticed to myself and Declan and the tackling and workrate by our forwards off the ball was phenomenal.”
Kerry were in the driving seat when they trailed by just 0-5 to 0-4 at the interval, having played against the breeze and Meath manager Shane McCormack knew they were in trouble at that stage.
“I was disappointed about our lead at half time,” he said. “We had our chances and there was handling errors there as well but we always knew that Kerry were going to press us with that wind as well.
“Look, Kerry have a fantastic squad and I knew that we were going to be up against it but in fairness to our girls, and I keep saying this, they gave us everything. They never stopped and they never gave up. We kept coming at them even when we were down and it was great to see. That’s the Meath character and we never gave up. We’re rebuilding and there’s a turnover of players but in fairness to all of our girls this year they gave it everything.”
Meath introduced former Footballer of the Year Vikki Wall at half time but after a typical run by her failed to yield a score, Kerry went on to slot over seven points on the trot with substitute Siofra O’Shea popping over two fine scores.
Niamh Gallogly shot a welcome point for Meath to bring the score to 0-11 to 0-6 but Kerry were relentless and with seven minutes left on the clock had pushed 0-15 to 0-7 ahead.
Monica McGuirk made a fine save from Emma Dineen at the expense of a point, but she had the final say when she punched over to seal a comprehensive win for Kerry.
Scorers for Kerry: L Ní Mhuiurcheartaigh 0-4 (3f), E Dineen 0-3, S O’Shea 0-3, D O’Leary 0-2, M O’Connell 0-1, A Galvin 0-1, C Murphy 0-1, N Carmody 0-1
Meath: M Farrelly 0-3, E Duggan 0-2, 1f, C Smyth 0-1, V Wall 0-1, N Gallogly 0-1
