Dublin Under 16A girls qualify for
All Ireland Semi Final
On Sunday Dublin
U16A camogie team travelled to Callan in Kilkenny to play Kilkenny with an All-Ireland
Semi Final place at stake.
Dublin
playing into a stiff breeze was first on the score board with a 45 and a free from
Aoife Mahon after some great tackling by Gaby Couch and Anna Geraghty.
The Dublin
full back line of Rachel Seery, Siun Keating and Hannah Leddy brought their A
game and were dealing well with the Kilkenny attacks.
On the 10th
minute Kilkenny opened their scoring with a point from play. After good work
from Hollyn Kennedy and Anna Geraghty Laura Quinn raced forward only to be
pulled back; the resultant free was scored by Aoife.
Both teams
were giving their all and serving up a wonderful game of camogie, Kilkenny and
Dublin exchanged points from frees before Kilkenny delivered a long ball into
the Dublin square, Ali Ramsden in the Dublin goal pulled off an impressive
reflex save from a powerful ground strike to deflect the ball over the bar.
A sweeping Dublin
move up the field saw the ball go from Hollyn to Laura back to Hollyn to Kim
Hickey who blasted the ball to the back of the net.
Kilkenny
were piling on the pressure but the strong defensive play of Caitlin Coffey, Jody Couch, Celine Atancio and Olivia Meagher restricted
them to just two more points before halftime to leave the score 0:06 to 1:04 to
Dublin.
From the
restart Dublin went on the attack, as Grainne O’Driscoll collected the ball and
broke free she was fouled, the free was
scored again by Aoife.
Again points
from frees were exchanged before Siun was harshly adjudged to have fouled her
player and Kilkenny were awarded a 21m free in front of goal, despite the best
efforts of the backs a powerful strike from Hannah Kelly saw the ball hit the
back of the Dublin net.
Kilkenny
were now a point in front and the home support were in full voice, it was
at this moment this group of Dublin girls lifted their game to another level, displaying
tremendous tackling, hooking and blocking. Celine, Caitlin, Olivia and Aoife
Byrne were linking well with the midfield pair of Niamh Gannon and Aoife Mahon
who were driving forward at the Kilkenny defence.
The move of the
day was when Hannah Leddy burst onto a ball in her half back line, raced up the
field, passed to Hollyn who linked up with Kim running on goal only to be
pulled down by the advancing goalkeeper, the free was tapped over the bar.
Another good
clearance by Caitlin to Niamh whose pass was fielded by Hollyn who in turn gave
a sweet hand pass to Laura on the run; her shot was deflected out for a 45 which
Aoife converted.
Hollyn was
soon on the score sheet herself after good work by Kim, Gaby and Grainne. Laura
fielded the Kilkenny puck out, ran at the defence and fired over a fine point.
As the clock
ticked down the Dublin defence was outstanding, they had held Kilkenny
scoreless for the last twenty minutes of the match.
Laura
finished the scoring with two well taken points after sizzling runs.
To the
delight of the Dublin supporters the final whistle sounded and Dublin had
secured their place in the semi-final on a score of 1:12 to 1:07.
Dublin Team:
Ali Ramsden, Rachel Seery, Siun Keating, Hannah Leddy, Anna Geraghty,
Jody Couch, Celine Atancio, Niamh Gannon (Capt.), Aoife Mahon (0:8), Olivia
Meagher, Kim Hickey (1:0), Caitlin Coffey, Gaby Couch, Hollyn Kennedy (0:1), Laura Quinn (0:3),
Georgia Plowman, Aoife Byrne, Molly Brown, Siofra Byrne, Katie McDonald,
Grainne O’Driscoll