Cork win All Ireland despite late Galway revival

Irish Examiner
by Tom Higgins
Monday, 05 August 2002

Cork 1-11
Galway 1-5

Some excellent defence, particularly in the latter stages of the second-half when they were under severe pressure, helped Cork to retain their All Ireland Minor A Camogie title with a hard earned win over Galway at Leahy Park, Cashel yesterday (Sun 4th August 2002).

On a very humid day Cork, who were winning the title for the 12th time, were the better side. They were quicker to the ball and werw 1-2 to 0-1 up after 17 minutes, their goal, an opportunist one, coming from Margaret McCarthy in the 17th minute.

Emer Watson's effort for a point came back off the post and McCarthy was on hand to billow the back of the net.

Scores were hard to come by, but with Galway defence inclined to foul and Noreen Mulcahy in excellent form from placed balls the Rebels managed to turn over leading by 1-7 to 0-2 at the break.

After Emer Watson had put the Rebels further ahead with a point in the opening minute of the second half Galway got back into it with a brilliant goal from their best player Brenda Hanney in the 37th minute. She picked up the ball about 30 metres out and raced through the Cork defence to give Valerie McCormack in the Cork goal no chance from close range.

The score seemed to give the Westerners renewed heart and they upped the tempo and put the Cork defence under tremendous pressure until the final ten minutes. However, with Sheila Burns playing a key role at full back and the halfback line of Noreen Mulcahy, Catriona Foley and Rena Buckley giving the Galway forwards little scope the defence stood firm and denied the wearers of the maroon another goal that would really have set up a tremendous finish.

In fact Valerie McCormack had to make a tremendous save from Susan Keane in the 50th minute when Galway were rampant, and in fact apart from Watson's opening point of the second half Cork had to reply on frees for their other three points in this period.

Scorers:
Cork: E Watson 0-6 (0-2 frees, N Mulcahy 0-4 (frees), M McCarthy 1-1
Galway: B Hanney 1-1, S Keane 0-2, C Glynn 0-1 (free) L Dillon 0-1

Cork: V McCormack, M Nyhan, S Burns, L Healy, N Mulcahy, C Foley, R Buckley, E O'Riordan, A Geary, B Corkery, M O'Neill, M McCarthy, D Twomey, E Watson, M Coleman.
Subs: E Waters for L Healy, M Murphy for M Coleman.

Galway: S Earner, A Coen, E Burker, T Byrne, L Lally, E Tannin, A M Broderick, C Kelly, C Glynn, S Keane, B Hanney, M Geoghegan, L Dillon, E Kilkenny, F Hahnefeld.
Subs: C Ruddy for L Lally, M Finnerty for E Kilkenny, C Hardiman for M Geoghean, R Maher for F Hahnefeld, S Dervan for C Hardiman.

Referee: E Browne (Tipperary)