Cork 2-10 Dublin 0-9

KATRINA Mackey grabbed a brace of goals at St Peregrine’s on Saturday evening as Cork produced a powerful turnaround to defeat Dublin in Group 1 of the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship.

Four points adrift in the early stages of the second half, the Leesiders registered 1-8 without reply to comprehensively seal their third successive win in this year’s competition. This result puts them in prime position to top the group and thus secure automatic progression to the semi-final stage of the O’Duffy Cup.

Following a tentative start to the action, Cork eventually opened the scoring with a fifth-minute pointed free from inside forward Amy O’Connor.

Laura Hayes had been breaking up the field to good effect during the early exchanges, but it was her half-back partner Saoirse McCarthy who double her side’s lead with an excellent strike on the right-wing.

Cork were starting to find their feet and displayed a clinical edge in the 15th-minute of the tie. Picking up possession close to the opposition posts, Douglas ace Mackey ruthlessly dispatched a powerful shot beyond the reach of Sky Blues netminder Eabha Mooney.

The Leesiders appeared well in control at this stage, but Dublin soon settled into a more familiar stride. Having replaced the injured Niamh Gannon in attack with just eight minutes on the clock, Kerrie Finnegan got the home team up and running with a superb point out towards the right-hand touchline.

This heralded a strong purple patch from the Metropolitans with a second point from full-forward Aisling O’Neill being followed by a brace of frees courtesy of Aisling Maher.

It was anticipated that Dublin would have a spell of dominance in the first half, given they were playing with the aid of a strong breeze in the Blakestown venue. Cork passed up some good scoring opportunities before their Leinster counterparts got up and running and this was something Matthew Twomey’s charges were left to rue at the interval.

Owing to a succession of hold-ups, referee John Dermody played eight minutes of stoppage-time at the end of the opening period. Dublin made hay during this juncture with O’Neill and Maher (two) knocking over unanswered scores to propel Adrian O’Sullivan’s outfit into a 0-7 to 1-2 advantage.

The half-time break offered Cork a chance to regain focus and even though Finnegan and Ali Twomey found the range to create further daylight between the teams, the visitors’ scoring drought finally came to an end when O’Connor converted a 34th-minute free. This was quickly supplemented by impressive efforts from play by Kate Wall and Chloe Sigerson, which brought the gap back down to a single point.

Parity was eventually restored by Mackey at the beginning of the final quarter and this was the cue for Cork to push into overdrive. Squeezed in between place-ball contributions from O’Connor, Mackey got on the end of an enterprising attack to hammer home her second goal of the game in fine style.

This suddenly edged Cork into a five-point buffer and within sight of a maximum return from this tricky fixture. Dublin were now struggling to make any sort of impact and also lost corner-back Muireann Kelleher to a second yellow card on 58 minutes.

This eliminated any prospect of a dramatic fightback, but O’Connor and the outstanding McCarthy split the uprights to ensure Cork had the final say.

Cork will now have a two-week break, before resuming competitive fare against Waterford on June 18.

Scorers for Cork: Katrina Mackey 2-1, Amy O’Connor 0-5 f, Saoirse McCarthy 0-2, Kate Wall, Chloe Sigerson 0-1 each.

Scorers for Dublin: Aisling Maher 0-4 (0-3 f), Aisling O’Neill, Kerrie Finnegan 0-2, Ali Twomey 0-1 each.

CORK: Amy Lee; Meabh Murphy, Libby Coppinger, Meabh Cahalane; Laura Hayes, Laura Tracey, Saoirse McCarthy; Katie O’Mahoney, Ashling Thompson; Orla Cronin, Fiona Keating, Kate Wall; Amy O’Connor, Chloe Sigerson, Katrina Mackey.

Subs: Ciara O’Sullivan for O’Mahoney (12-19, blood), Sorcha McCartan for Wall (40), O’Sullivan for Tracey (43), Emma Murphy for O’Mahoney, Cliona Healy for Cronin, Hannah Loony for Sigerson (all 60).

DUBLIN: Eabha Mooney; Roisin Baker, Eve O’Brien, Muireann Kelleher; Issy Davis, Hannah Hegarty, Emma O’Byrne; Leah Butler, Gaby Couch; Aisling Maher, Niamh Gannon, Jody Couch; Elyse Jamieson-Murphy, Aisling O’Neill, Ali Twomey.

Subs: Kerrie Finnegan for Gannon (8), Aoife Walsh for Finnegan (46), Aoife Whelan for Jamieson-Murphy (51), Ellie Young for Maher (60).

Referee: John Dermody (Westmeath).