Kilkerrin-Clonberne boss praises his side’s poise on biggest stage
Kilkerrin-Clonberne manager Willie Ward praised his players’ poise on the biggest stage as the Galway champions claimed back-to-back currentaccount.ie All-Ireland senior club championships with a stylish win over Donaghmoyne at Croke Park.
Kilkerrin-Clonberne never trailed as they defended the title they won for the first time in January this year, and their manager welcomed their convincing showing against the five-time champions.
“It has been a great day for us. The game went very much as we hoped it would go. Most of our match-ups, we got them right and our game plan worked pretty well. I thought we handled the game pretty well all the way through,” said Ward.
“They [Donaghmoyne] kept fighting and kept going, as they would. They’re a classy team. Great tradition, great experience and they kept pushing everywhere they could.
“I thought overall our team had a good combined effort. It was particularly a great defensive effort from our team.”
Throughout the game scores came easier to Kilkerrin-Clonberne as their attack sparkled in the chilly conditions, while scoring opportunities were kept to a minimum at the opposite end.
They raced into a 0-4 to 0-0 lead early on, and with Olivia Divilly and Chloe Miskell kicking nine points between them over the hour, they were good value for their win.
“We got four good scores and we seemed to have quite a bit of possession early on as well. We were using it pretty well. The game was flowing the way we thought. We were happy enough with that and we came in at half-time, we had a nice lead,” said Ward.
“We knew they would come back hard, but we did build on the lead as well. It was the last few minutes that they came back and got three points. We were happy with the way that went.”
Eva Noone, Miskell, Olivia Divilly and team captain Louise Ward landed those vital early scores for Kilkerrin-Clonberne, and in truth Donaghmoyne were always playing catch up – even after Amy Garland got them off the mark after 11 minutes.
By half-time Kilkerrin-Clonberne had landed another four scores to lead 0-8 to 0-3, and Donaghmoyne manager Francie Coleman conceded that second quarter was critical in the eventual outcome.
“We probably came back on them in the first-half there. After 15, 20 minutes, we were back to two points, but a few mistakes let them off the hook. They added on another three points before half-time and I think that was the killer blow. We needed scores at the start of the second half, which we didn’t get. We were playing catch up.
“We’re very disappointed. We didn’t perform to the best of our ability on the day. That’s taking nothing away from the opposition. I thought they were fantastic today. We were second best all through the match. We’ve no complaints.
“All through their team, they’re very athletic. Their pace was amazing, their control of the ball, everything they did was perfect really. They were just superior to us on the day,” said Coleman.
Olivia Divilly was a threat throughout and her fourth point to start the second-half scoring set the tone for her side once again. Miskell was also on song up front and doubled her own personal haul on 38 minutes, but despite defender Hannah Noone being sent to the sin-bin there was no stopping the Connacht champions.
Cathriona McConnell kicked a superb score for Donaghmoyne while Noone served her time, but two in reply from Miskell meant Kilkerrin-Clonberne were able to close out the game with ease – despite a late flurry from the Monaghan side.
O Divilly 0-5 (3f), C Miskell 0-4, L Ward 0-2, E Noone (f), L Noone 0-1 each.
C Courtney 0-3, R Courtney 0-2, A Garland, C McConnell 0-1 each.
L Murphy; C Costello, S Gormally, C Dunleavy; K Mee, N Ward, H Noone; S Divilly, L Finnegan; O Divilly, L Ward, L Noone; E Noone, A Morrissey, C Miskell.
N Divilly for Finnegan (47), S Fahy for Mee (52), M Flanagan for L Noone (53), Caitlin Boyle for Morrissey (58), Caoimhe Boyle for Miskell (59).
L Martin; J Geoghegan, N Callan, A Callan; F Courtney, S Courtney, E Traynor; C Courtney, E McElroy; A Garland, R Courtney, S McConnell; C McConnell, L Garland, A Burns.
G Comiskey for A Burns, A McElroy for S McConnell (both 53), D Collier for A Callan, J Courtney for Geoghegan, S Burns for A Garland (all 59).
Jonathan Murphy (Carlow).