The trailblazing St Ergnat’s women will meet all-conquering Kilkerrin-Clonberne. The Galway club are chasing a fifth AIB All-Ireland SFC club title in a row
St Ergnat’s, Moneyglass star Eleanor Mallon says there is ‘no reason why’ the Antrim champions cannot go now and land the AIB All-Ireland senior title after pulling off a huge semi-final shock.
Cathy Carey and Maria O’Neill sparkled at Pairc de Burca as history-makers St Ergnat’s booked their spot in the All-Ireland senior club championship final with a superb victory over Kilmacud Crokes.
A constant thorn in the side of their opponents, Carey and O’Neill were instrumental in ensuring Ergnat’s became the first side from Antrim to make it to a top-tier ladies football national club decider.
“Once we got that sniff of Ulster a couple of weeks ago, Maxi (Curran – manager) said, we knew it’s 15 on 15, it’s the same size of goalposts, the same size of ball, why can we not go the whole hog?” said St Ergnat’s forward Eleanor Mallon afterwards.
“Why can we not? We’ve just proved, we have taken out Kilmacud Crokes. There is literally nothing stopping us now. There is no reason why we can’t go now in two weeks’ time and do the whole thing.”
The trailblazing St Ergnat’s women will meet all-conquering Kilkerrin-Clonberne. The Galway club remain on course for a fifth AIB All-Ireland SFC club title in a row after they beat Waterford champions Comeragh Rangers by 1-11 to 0-3 in their semi-final.
The Tribeswomen led by two points at the interval but pulled away after the restart with Eva Noone and Olivia Divilly leading the way.
Moneyglass, managed by former Donegal boss Maxi Curran, the Saffron County outfit were well in contention from the early stages of their semi-final, with the influential duo of Carey and O’Neill on hand to cancel out Crokes efforts by Eabha Rutledge and Niamh Cotter (free).
Kilmacud were aiming to make a swift return to the All-Ireland senior showpiece after losing out to Kilkerrin-Clonberne in last year’s final and they created some daylight with unanswered points from Michelle Davoren (two) and Cotter. While Ergnat’s subsequently restored parity thanks to the reliable boots of O’Neill (two) and Carey, Crokes reasserted themselves when Michelle Davoren palmed to the opposition net on 26 minutes.
Although this was a set-back for their Moneyglass counterparts, another successful Carey free left them just two points in arrears (1-5 to 0-6) at the interval.
Crokes restored their half-time lead as a result of Cotter cancelling out a Carey point on the resumption, but the Dublin and Leinster champions were being placed under increased pressure as the action progressed.
Back-to-back points from Carey and the hard-working Eleanor Mallon had Ergnat’s back on level terms by the third-quarter mark and they squeezed in front for the first time when the excellent Carey bagged yet another score on 47 minutes.
This was immediately followed by a superbly-taken goal by O’Neill and this suddenly had the Moneyglass women without sight of a monumental triumph. Traded efforts between Crokes midfielder Doireann Egan and Leah Stewart kept the gap at four, before three points on the bounce from Cotter left the bare minimum between the teams heading into seven minutes of stoppage-time.
This ramped up the tension in an already gripping affair, but thanks to a point at the death by substitute JoJo Darragh, it was the outstanding St Ergnat’s who advanced to face reigning champions Kilkerrin-Clonberne in the All-Ireland final on December 13 at Croke Park.
Scorers – St Ergnat’s, Moneyglass: C Carey 0-6 (4f), M O’Neill 1-3 (0-1f), L Stewart, E Mallon, J Darragh 0-1 each.
Kilmacud Crokes: N Cotter 0-6 (5f), M Davoren 1-2, D Egan, E Rutledge 0-1 each.
ST ERGNAT’S, MONEYGLASS: A Devlin; C Graffin, N McIntosh, L Stewart; A Leahy, S O’Neill, R Bradley; A Kelly, E Louise McAreavey; C Griffin, M O’Neill, N Neeson; B Devlin, C Carey, E Mallon. Subs: L McCann for Kelly (38), J Darragh for B Devlin (44).
KILMACUD CROKES : D Gower; P Greene, E Sweeney, C Regan; S O’Donoghue, A Kane, N Carr; D Egan, K Murray; L Kane, A Davoren, N Cotter; A Conroy, M Davoren, E Rutledge. Subs: K McDaid for L Kane (42), A Bedford for O’Donoghue (45), A O’Grady for Regan, E Kane for Conroy (both 52).
Referee: Barry Redmond (Wexford).
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