Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final: Galway 1-14 Cork 1-13
GALWAY’S fifth All-Ireland title, won in dramatic fashion in Croke Park yesterday, has completed the medal set for Niamh Mallon.
She lost two Junior finals before captaining Down to the 2014 title.
Then she lost the 2018 Intermediate final to Cork before shooting 2-3 in a Player of the match performance for Down to lift the Covid final.
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Last year, she transferred to Galway, but lost the senior final to Cork. The Portaferry native contributed a point yesterday as she became just the second Down player, after Sorcha McCartan, to win an O’Duffy Cup medal.
“Here, it’s not about me at all. It’s about Galway winning today. I am very grateful that they brought me into the panel last year and the past two seasons have been about me putting my shoulder to the wheel to help them get over the line.”
Just as she begins to speak to me, one of her team-mates shouts across “Welcome to the All-Ireland winners’ group.”
“It’s a fantastic feeling to join that group. You know last year we had five or six girls involved in their first All-Ireland, me included. There’s a huge mental battle there as well as the physical and tactical side of things.
“Today I felt that the team was a lot more comfortable during the game than we were last year, a lot more in control. That’s bringing the experience we gained in defeat last year to today’s game.
“Last year, we felt that we left it behind us. Today we came in here feeling that, if we got it right, we would definitely win it. We’re just delighted how things worked out and I’m sure Cathal (Moore, the manager) will be telling us that. We wanted to put the wrongs of last year right.”
The late goal from Orlaith Cahalane almost derailed the bid after everything he gone so well for 60 minutes.
“That’s high-level sport, these things happen. But there was resilience in the group and what we went through 12 months ago stood to us going down the stretch. What a massive free from Carrie! No better woman.
“We didn’t play well in the league final against them (Cork). We knew that was a poor version of ourselves.
“There was a massive amount of work put in since the start of the year and particularly since the league final. We took a good hard look at ourselves and asked if we were nine points worse than Cork.”
Not only does the victory complete a personal milestone for Mallon, but it adds to a special year for the forward as she married Cushendall hurler Dom Delargy back in the springtime.
More golden moments to treasure!
