Goals From Katrina Mackey And Amy O’Connor At The Start Of Each Half Helped Cork To Secure A Comfortable Opening Win Of The 2021 Camogie Championship
Cork 2-19
Dublin 0-12
Dublin’s Senior Camogie team suffered an opening round defeat of the 2021 Camogie Championship to Cork this afternoon in Páirc Ui Rinn.
Goals early in each half from Katrina Mackey in the first and Amy O’Connor in the second helped Cork was to a comfortable thirteen point win.
Dublin needed to start brightly but a loose pass from goalkeeper Ciara Tierney was pounced on by Cork and Katrina Mackey drove forward and smashed the ball to the net for the opening goal of the game inside the opening two minutes.
Dublin opened their account in the sixth minute with a converted free from Aisling Maher, seconds later the Sky Blues grabbed their second point.
Maher launched a free from the middle of the park towards the Cork goal, pressure from Dublin forced Cork defence into a poor clearance and the ball was retrieved by Dublin and Ali Twomey swung the ball over the bar from out on the right wing.
Cork responded with three unanswered points, two from play by Linda Collins and Katrina Mackey and a Chloe Sigerson free.
The sides swapped dead ball strikes with Dublin’s Aisling Maher and Cork’s Katrina Mackey on target to leave the score at the water break 1-05 to 0-03 in Cork’s favour.
Dublin reduced the deficit on the resumption with another successful free attempt by Maher. Cork extended their lead with a Chloe Sigerson point from a free out on the left sideline.
But seconds later and Dublin captain Hannah Hegarty was harshly penalised for steps and Katrina Mackey struck the free over the bar to leave the score 1-07 to 0-04 with twenty three minutes on the clock.
An Aisling Maher long range free was launched towards the Cork square, the ball was cleared out the right, but it was picked up by Dublin and Niamh Gannon cut inside and swung the ball straight over the black spot.
Another converted Maher free reduced the gap to five points, but Cork responded with four quick points two from play by Linda Collins and Ashling Thomson and two frees from Katrina Mackey to lead at half-time 1-11 to 0-06.
Cork extended their lead inside the opening two minutes after the restart with a pointed free from Katrina Mackey and a fine point from play from Fiona Keating.
Disaster then struck for Dublin, a long ball over the back line was heading towards the endline, a Dublin defender tried to see the ball dead, but it stopped short and Cork’s Amy O’Connor nipped in the scoop up the ball, turned towards the goal and buried the ball to the net.
The sides swapped two points a piece, Dublin’s Aisling Maher from a free and Kerrie Finnegan from play, Finnegan’s effort was unlucky not to end up in the net as it just cleared the crossbar and Cork’s Katrina Mackey from a free and Chloe Sigerson from play left the score at the second half water break 2-15 to 0-08.
Dublin reduced the Cork lead with their ninth point of the game scored by Emma Flanagan, but as they had done throughout the game Cork came straight back with a good point from the left scored by Ashling Thompson with nine minutes left in the game.
The lead was further extended with a superb effort from Chloe Sigerson, Dublin were finding it difficult to create scoring opportunities from play and were reliant on frees for scores and Maher put Dublin into double figures with a converted free with three minutes left in the game.
Oral Cronin grabbed Cork’s eighteenth point of game in the 58th minute, Dublin added two more points before the final whistle, a converted 45’ from Aisling Maher was followed with a good point from play scored by Niamh Gannon.
But it was Cork who rounded off the scoring with a pointed free from Chloe Sigerson to run out comfortable thirteen point winners.
Dublin Scorers
Aisling Maher 0-07 (7f)
Niamh Gannon 0-02
Kerri Finnegan 0-01
Ali Twomey 0-01
Emma Flanagan 0-01
Cork Scorers
Katrina Mackey 1-07 (6f)
Chloe Sigerson 0-05 (3f)
Amy O’Connor 1-01
Linda Collins 0-02
Ashling Thompson 0-02
Fiona Keating 0-01
Orla Cronin 0-01
Dublin
1. Ciara Tierney
2. Orla Gray
3. Eve O’Brien
4. Muireann Kelleher
22. Emma O’Byrne
6. Grainne Quinn
7. Hannah Hegarty
8. Emma Flanagan
9. Roisin Baker
10. Aisling Maher
11. Jody Couch
12. Aoife Whelan
18. Ali Twomey
14. Kerrie Finnegan
27. Niamh Gannon
Dublin Substitutions
16. Faye McCarthy for Tierney (HT)
21. Elyse Jameison Murphy for Gray (HT)
13. Cliodhna Nicoletti for Whelan (42)
23. Gaby Couch for Jody Couch (46)
19. Dee Johnstone for Eve O’Brien (46)
Cork
1. Amy Lee
2. Ellen Murphy
3. Libby Coppinger
4. Meabh Cahalane
21. Saoirse McCarthy
6. Laura Treacy
7. Laura Hayes
5. Hannah Looney
9. Ashling Thompson
10. Chloe Sigerson
8. Katrina Mackey
12. Ciara O’Sullivan
13. Fiona Keating
14. Amy O’Connor
15. Linda Collins
Cork Substitutions
20. Izzy O’Regan for Hannah Looney (52)
11. Orla Cronin for O’Sullivan (52)
23. Isobel Sheehan for Ashling Thompson (57)
Report: We Are Dublin GAA
Photo ilivephotos.com