By Aoife Clare at NCDC Abbotstown
Éire Óg Carrickmore (Tyrone) 2-7
St Kevin’s (Louth) 1-5
A gander through the roll of honour of the Éire Óg club would tell you that it wasn’t a question of if the Carrickmore club would start to rack up the adult trophies, but when.
This decade has seen the progressive club accumulate no shortage of underage silverware and in the last two seasons, they’ve been almost unstoppable at adult level, powering up through the grades.
St Kevin’s of Louth were the latest club to find them too hot to handle in Saturday’s AIB All-Ireland Junior B final at Abbotstown, where Éire Óg powered into an early 2-3 to no score lead and then held on in the second half, eventually winning comfortably despite scoring just a single point after the 38th minute.
For a team like theirs, laden with talented teenagers of immense potential, the only surprise is that they were so competent in the physical stakes, more than matching the challenge of their Louth opponents.
“We won a first Ulster last year and we moved up so this is a big step,” said manager Declan Sherlock afterwards.
“When we moved up first of all and went into this (intermediate) level in Tyrone, we got thrown about the place. The girls were asking, why is this happening? We’re not deliberately a physical team but we’ve grown to be, because we’ve moved up a level. When you have a bodies-on-the-line situation and the support comes flooding in, it’s awesome to see.”
Éire Óg weren’t shy about displaying their craft as well. Sorcha Gormley’s goal after 15 minutes was all about timing her run, arriving at pace and delivering a snappy finish on the run, while Leanne McKernan showed her poaching instincts for the second, batting the sliotar to the net after she perfectly anticipated the break of the ball close to goal.
From then on however it was all about stern defence and keeping a prolific St Kevin’s attack at bay. Amy Murray gave the Phillipstown club a boost when her looping shot dipped in under the crossbar from 30 metres out, but it was all about defensive cohesion and collective effort from then on for the Tyrone and Ulster champions.
“Ever since we saw the high scoring opposition, St Kevin’s scored 2-19 in their Leinster Final and then won by 4-10 to 0-3 in the semi-final against the Roscommon team (Pádraig Pearses), we had to ramp up our hooking, blocking and shutting people down,” said Sherlock.
“We worked on things like timing in the tackle and it worked because to hold St Kevin’s to 1-5 was a testament to the girls.
“With six minutes to go I was looking at the score line and watching across our half back line and there was nothing getting in there. They were covering all the spaces, but we’ve had a very set defence all year. Our inside forward line changes a lot, but the defence knows each other well and there’s three sisters there as well, then we have the two McElduffs, our girls know each other inside out. There’s a level of understanding between them, their communication is brilliant”.
Aoibhínn Daly shot four points in all, two from frees, for the winning side in yet another strong performance from the Tyrone Player of the Year. Daly is just three years out of minor herself, but has relished the role of sharing the club captaincy and taking on a leadership role with this progressive group.
“We had one aim at the start of the game which was to be in front at the end of it! Our defence went well, it was outstanding today, they didn’t give St Kevin’s any space. All across the team everyone was working together and it was that teamwork that got us over the line today,” was Daly’s reflections on their win.
“We’ve grown used to tough battles in the Tyrone intermediate championship, we needed a goal in the final minutes of the Ulster final and it was another really hard-fought battle in the semi-final, so that type of game stood to us today.
“We’ve had a lot of minor girls coming into the team and it’s only this year that it’s started to click. You’ve seen those players look at home in these games and to win this All-Ireland now is another great day for the club and a special day for all of us players, I’m so proud of them.”
SCORERS FOR ÉIRE ÓG: A Daly 0-5(2fs); S Gormley 1-1; L McKernan 1-0; N McElduff 0-1
SCORERS FOR ST KEVIN’S: A Murray 1-1; T Reilly, R Maguire, A Gregory, L Sheridan (f) 0-1 each
ÉIRE ÓG: T Haughey, N Ní Dhonnghaile, E Gallagher, A Kerr; B Kerr, R Kerr, O Nic Giolla Dhuibh, S Gormley, C Clarke, L McKernan, N McElduff, A Daly, N McElroy, M Daly, K Hughes. Subs: M McCollon for M Daly, A Bennett for A Kerr, A Gallagher for Hughes
ST KEVIN’S: T Reilly, C Mason, L Cunningham, S Cunningham, A Gregory, C Mason, C Logue, R Maguire, G Murray, L Sheridan, G Murray, A Murray, K Matthews, A Carroll, L Carter. Subs: C Cunningham for Mason, G King for Carter, M Lynch for Carroll, L Gregory for G Murray, M Taaffe for S Cunningham (60+2)
REFEREE: Karol Collins (Galway)
Eire Og Carrickmore’s Ailise Coyle and Aoibhinn step up for the Cup (above and below)
