Hurling & Camogie

Double substitutions turn tide for Tribe in Division One final win over Cork

REPRO FREE***PRESS RELEASE NO REPRODUCTION FEE*** EDITORIAL USE ONLY Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division 1 Final, Croke Park, Dublin 9/4/2022 Cork vs Galway Galway celebrate after the game Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan
REPRO FREE***PRESS RELEASE NO REPRODUCTION FEE*** EDITORIAL USE ONLY Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division 1 Final, Croke Park, Dublin 9/4/2022 Cork vs Galway Galway celebrate after the game Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan REPRO FREE***PRESS RELEASE NO REPRODUCTION FEE*** EDITORIAL USE ONLY Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division 1 Final, Croke Park, Dublin 9/4/2022 Cork vs Galway Galway celebrate after the game Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan

Littlewoods Ireland Camogie LeagueDivision One final: Galway 2-14 Cork 1-13

ALL-IRELAND champions Galway took off two recently-crowned Allstars in the 38th minute when they trailed Cork by 1-10 to 0-9 and brought on Carrie Dolan and Catherine Finnerty.

To say that the double-substitution worked is an understatement. Finnerty, after being sent through by Dolan, buried a goal five minutes later to draw the teams level at 1-10 each. And Dolan dominated the last 20 minutes, scoring 1-4 and picking up the Player of the Match award.

Later subs introduced by Galway strengthened their position while Cork just didn’t have that depth on their bench and all their good work over the early part of the game counted for little as the Tribeswomen brought the Littlewoods Ireland Division One league title across the Shannon for the sixth time.

The teams were level on six occasions by the 22nd minute, but points from Chloe Sigerson (free), Saoirse McCarthy and Aisling Thompson between the 24th and 26th minutes opened a gap that remained at half time, 0-10 to 0-7.

When Amy O’Connor slammed in a close-range goal to crown a superb attacking move in the first minute of the second half, the Rebels were 1-10 to 0-7 in front and their tails were up with Laura Tracey lording the scene from the centre of their defence.

However once Cathal Murray began to run his bench, the tide turned.

Carrie Dolan’s first task was to fire over a free and shortly after she played in Finnerty for a goal to level the game. Although Cork responded with an excellent point from McCarthy, the subs were causing problems and Dolan hit a goal and three points between the 48th and 58th minutes to put Galway firmly in the driving seat.

Katrina Mackey, with two frees at the start of six minutes of added time, narrowed the gap to a goal and Cork had some hope of salvaging something from the game. But another substitute, Sabina Rabitte, a player on for the last seven minutes to make her debut sealed victory with a well taken final point.

Galway now hold the league and championship trophies and their strength in depth going forward suggests that there could well be more silverware coming their way in August.

Ex-Down player Sorcha McCartan was listed at full-forward for Cork, but didn’t start after apparently picking up an injury midweek.

Earlier in the day, Limerick were relegated to Division Two after nine seasons in the top-flight. They lost the relegation play-off with Offaly by 3-10 to 1-13, with Máiréad Teehan the Offaly saviour with a personal tally of three goals and five points.

Both Offaly and Limerick are in the same senior championship group as Down, Antrim, Galway and Kilkenny. The 2022 senior championship begins in six weeks.

Galway scorers: C Dolan (1-4, 0-3 frees), A O’Reilly (0-5, 0-2 frees), C Finnerty (1-0), N Kilkenny (0-1), Á Keane (0-1), A Donohue (0-1), O McGrath (0-1), S Rabbitte (0-1)

Cork: A Thompson (0-3), S McCarthy (0-3), K Mackey (0-3, 0-2 frees), A O’Connor (1-0), F Keating (0-2), L Hayes (0-1), C Sigerson (0-1 free).