By
Nigel McCarthy - We Are Dublin.
St. Vincents 1-14
Na Fianna 0-10
Aisling Maher was in scintillating shooting form for St Vincents on Friday in Parnell Park as the Marino club won the Dublin Camogie senior club title for the first time since 2019.
It was an emotional night for St Vincents with the breaking news of the passing of Vinnies and Dublin legend Brian Mullins just hours before the start of the game.
The midfield maestro though would have been very proud of the performance of the whole St Vincent’s team on the night as they dominated the majority of the game, particularly in the first half were they built up a 1-09 to 0-03 half-time lead to put them well and truly in the driving seat.
Na Fianna though played their part in the final and showed plenty of character to outscore St Vincents after the break by 0-07 to 0-05, but they just couldn’t break down a resolute and well organised Vinnies defence to register the goals they needed and had to rely on frees for scores with only two of their ten points on the night coming from play.
There was strong wind blowing from the Church End of the ground which St Vincents took full advantage of in the first half with the Marino side racing into a five point to no score lead inside the opening twelve minutes.
Aisling Maher got the ball rolling with a free in the fourth minute and added three excellent points from play and was unmark-able at times with her clever movement and ability to get out in front of her marker, Niamh Hetherton added another fine effort from play in between the Maher points.
Na Fianna finally got off the mark midway through the half with two quick fire frees from Niamh Rock, but the Mobi Road side were finding it difficult to get the ball to stick up front due to the tenacious tackling of the St Vincents defence.
Maher converted another free in the twentieth minute and three minutes later she slotted over another free.
The game was in danger of running away from Na Fianna, a converted free from Niamh Rock stopped the one way scoring momentarily bit Vincemts quickly responded with a fine point from play from Ava Lambe to leave the score 0-08 to 0-03 as the game headed towards the half time break.
Disaster though struck for Na Fianna in first half injury time, a scramble for the ball near the stand side was won by St Vincent’s, the ball was played to Danielle Smith who played a ball towards Maher at full forward but the ball went past Maher and bobbled past the keeper into the net.
Aisling Maher added another converted free just before the half time whistle and St Vincents led by nine points at the break with the score 1-09 to 0-03 and Na Fianna had a mountain to climb in the second half.
At half-time the 1992 Dublin Intermediate team who won the inaugural All Ireland Intermediate championship and were honoured at a special dinner earlier in the evening on the thirtieth anniversary of that famous win were introduced to the crowd.
As the action got back underway in the second half Na Fianna needed to get the scoreboard ticking over early to get back into the final, but it was St Vincents who stretched their lead further with two Aisling Maher frees inside the first five minutes.
Na Fianna’s Niamh Rock and Maher scored swapped a pair of points each as the second half reached the midway point.
With ten minutes remaining Na Fianna began to ring the changes in an effort to rescue the final, Emily Bryne replaced Rock and her first contribution was to slot over a free.
Maher responded with one of her own a minute later and then Na Fianna hit a purple patch of scoring. Alex Griffin who was one of Na Fianna’s better players on the night collected the ball about thirty yards out from goal and swung over her sides first point from play with eight minutes left on the clock.
Substitute Emily Bryne converted her second free since her introduction to the final then scored her sides second point from play.
But Na Fianna needed goals to make a dent in the Vincents lead, they did have a late effort in injury time, Bryne struck a free just outside the 21 metre line which was stopped on the line, the ball flew into the air and was flicked towards goal and once again was saved on the line for a 45’ which Emily Bryne struck over the bar.
It was to be the last score of the game and St Vincents deservedly ran out seven points winners to claim the 2022 Dublin Camogie Senior club title.
St. Vincents Scorers
14. Aisling Maher 0-12 (8f)
9. Danielle Smith 1-00
10. Niamh Hetherton 0-01
11. Ava Lambe 0-01
Na Fianna Scorers
13. Niamh Rock 0-05 (5f)
18. Emily Bryne 0-04 (3f)
12. Alex Griffin 0-01
St. Vincents
1. Dara Cooke
2. Ciara O’Leary
3. Deirdre Johnstone
4. Lora Smith
5. Ellen McGovern
6. Grainne Quinn
7. Eva Marie Elliot
8. Aine Woods
9. Danielle Smith
10. Niamh Hetherton
11. Ava Lambe
12. Claire Donnelly
18. Róisín Drohan
14. Aisling Maher
15. Muireann Kelleher
St. Vincents Substitutions
17. Alison Maguire for 18. Róisín Drohan (48)
22. Grace Gilroy for 9. Danielle Smith (57)
20. Abby Farrell for 12. Claire Donnelly (65)
Na Fianna
1. Ciara Tierney
2. Grainne Free
3. Niamh Gleeson
4. Sophie Reid
5. Meadhbh Ni Ceallaichain
6. Eve O’Brien
7. Sinead Rogers
8. Roisin Baker
9. Elyse Jamieson Murphy
10. Emma Deeley
11. Arlene Cushen
12. Alex Griffin
13. Niamh Rock
24. Ciara O’Looney
15. Emma Gray
Na Fianna Substitutions
19. Ellen Quigley for 15. Emma Gray (47)
18. Emily Bryne for 13. Niamh Rock (50)
21. Kate Buckley for 7. Sinead Rogers (52)
17. Jenny Gleeson for 10. Emma Deeley (59)
Player of the Match: Aisling Maher (St Vincents)
Referee: David Murphy (St James’ Gaels)