Armagh manager Greg McGonigle gave credit to to his goalscorers Aimee Mackin and Kelly Mallon, along with the long-serving Caroline O’Hanlon, as they led the way as the Orchard County maintained their brilliant start to the Lidl NFL with a 2-12 to 0-8 win over Meath at Donaghmore-Ashbourne
Mackin and Mallon struck 1-4 as Armagh remain the only side to win all four games in the top flight.
“As I keep saying to younger players coming into our set-up, Aimee Mackin and Kelly Mallon are the last two people to leave the field every single night and they’re the first two people on the field,” said McGonigle.
“It doesn’t come from our coaching, it comes from them being diligent and putting in the hard work. That’s obviously why they’re two of the best forwards in Ireland.
“She is nearly superhuman,” McGonigle added about O’Hanlon who had played for Leeds Rhinos in the Netball Superleague on Saturday. “She’s a credit to not even just female athletes, but any athlete as regards playing at the top of your game. Her knowledge of the game as regards her coaching of younger players. We have a lot of 18, 19 year olds on the panel, who mightn’t get game time, but they’re getting some experience playing with Caroline O’Hanlon.”
Armagh led by 0-7 to 0-5 at the interval and pushed for victory when Mackin found the net seven minutes after the restart, while Mallon’s strike killed off any notion of a comeback by Meath.
““It was obviously a big game, whoever won would get on top of the table,” said Meath player Mary Kate Lynch. “It’s not gone away from us. We still have three games left and it’s still there for the taking. I think it’s still there for anyone really at this point in time. We’ll have to just reassess, go back. See where the errors were and kick on from there.”
There was a big surprise at Páirc Uí Rinn as a Cork side looking for their second win was blown away by a Waterford team who had lost all three opening games.But Waterford got on top from the outset and a goal from Aine O’Neill helped them lead by 1-9 to 0-1 at the break. They didn’t relent after the restart and a goal from Clare Walsh helped open a 2-12 to 0-3 lead and Cork, who had a late consolation goal from Lydia McDonagh, are now firmly in the relegation scrap after a 2-12 to 1-6 loss.
“I think that performance has been coming over the last three games,” said Waterford manager Pat Sullivan. “I knew this performance was in us but look it’s a results based game and we hadn’t got results up to today. So we knew this was a massive game we had to get it and we were possibly down if we didn’t. We still have a massive battle over the next three games with. That performance gets up and running and we know what we have in the locker but we should be a lot more clinical and we will work on that in the next two weeks.”
Galway are in deep relegation trouble after they got caught in the closing stages by All-Ireland champions Dublin at Parnell Park and fell to their fourth loss, which now sees them propping up the table after being pipped by 0-16 to 1-12.
A goal from Linda Booth helped Galway lead by 1-7 to 0-8 at the break but Dublin came with a late surge with points from Kate Sullivan and Orlagh Nolan levelling the match before Hannah Tyrrell kicked a free in the dying moments to claim a second win of the campaign for Mick Bohan’s charges.
““We probably stole it in the end,” admitted Bohan. “But their character in that last 15 minutes was fantastic. A lot of young kids still. We’d a couple of girls making their debut there. So for them to experience that in the cauldron that was here in Parnell Park was very pleasing. Feel a little bit sorry for Galway and I’m not sure that we deserved the three points.”
Galway manager Daniel Moynihan concurred. “It’s a tough one to take. In each of the four games, we’ve been very much in it. But at the final whistle, we’ve come out the wrong side of it. But that one especially when we got such a good start, we were playing well. We were ahead for the majority of the game. We’ve shown a lot of resolve in the games that we’ve played. I think the attitude as always is brilliant with the girls.”
