Dublin Minor B Camogie team qualify for Leinster Final
Report by Ollie Mahon
Dublin Minor B camogie team travelled to the Kilkenny heartland of Clara to play Kilkenny with an Leinster Final place at stake.
Kilkenny playing with a slight breeze were first on the score board with a 45 but Dublin quickly responded with two frees from Emma Gray after good work by Ciara Golden and Sadhbh Duffy.
The Dublin full back line of Aoife Byrne, Aoife Heffernan and Danni O’ Connor were on top form and were dealing well with the Kilkenny attacks.
A long range shot at the posts by Emma Gray bounced off the hard surface and into the net, in the space of a minute Kilkenny hit back with a goal and a point to tie the match 1:2 apiece. The Dublin half backs of Jess Murphy, Lauren Robinson, Chloe O’ Connor and midfield pair of Aine Reilly and Cliodhna Nicoletti were dominating and repelled Kilkenny attacks time after time.
Georgina Ploughman in the Dublin goal pulled off an impressive reflex save after a vicious bounce.
In this hard fought tight match scores were hard earned and there were no flags raised by either side for the remainder of the first half.
From the restart Kilkenny raced into a three point lead but then Dublin roared back into this game with points from Emma Gray, Cliodhna Nicoletti and a well taken goal by Sadhbh Duffy with 15 minutes to play.
The pace and skill of Saoirse Fitzgerald, Erica Tobin, Deirdre McCarthy and Megan Thomas were causing Kilkenny problems. With leaders all over the pitch Dublin now went on a wonderful scoring spree with 8 points without reply, 3 from Nicoletti and Tobin, and one each from Niamh Heffernan and Megan Thomas.
During this spell the Dublin backs were in a mean mood and didn’t give their opponents an inch, they held Kilkenny scoreless for the last twenty minutes of the match.
To the delight of the Dublin supporters the final whistle sounded and Dublin had secured their place in the Leinster final on a score of 2:12 to 1:05.
Dublin Team:
Georgia Plowman, Aoife Byrne, Aoife Heffernan, Danni O’Connor, Jess Murphy, Lauren Robinson, Chloe O’Connor, Aine Reilly, Cliodhna Nicoletti, Emma Gray, Sadhbh Duffy, Ciara Golden, Erica Tobin, Megan Thomas, Deirdre McCarthy, Saoirse Fitzgerald, Niamh Heffernan, Chloe Murphy, Holly Finnegan, Rebecca Cassidy