Barry: ‘To bring three cups back to Glanmire in the one season is just incredible’
Sean O’Heslins 1-6
Glanmire manager Vinny Barry said they kept improving all season and all the hard work has paid off after they captured the currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championship title at Croke Park.
“It’s unbelievable. We had a long year, a lot of championship games,” he said. “Winning the Cork county was only the beginning of the year. We succeeded in that, won by a point.
“Went to the quarter-finals then, won the Munster and then had to go to London to play an extremely good team Tir Chonaill Gaels in an All-Ireland quarter-final. Beat Na Fianna in the semi-final, but this was just exceptional, I must say. A great feeling. To bring three cups back to Glanmire in the one season is just incredible.
“We learnt a lot from the semi-final with Na Fianna. To be honest, we had a terrible first half against Na Fianna. We got no score from play, just two scores from frees. We spoke about it at half-time and we were a different team in the second half. We looked at the game ourselves and we said ‘that’s not going to work in Croke Park on the day of an All-Ireland final’.
“So we ironed out a few things and we knew if we got early goals that we’d put Ballinamore under pressure. We really did and we had a nice lead at half-time. It was a nice lead, but we knew Ballinamore were going to come at us the first 10 minutes in the second half, which we did.
“We made a few errors and mistakes, but we picked it up again and we’re delighted.”
Full-forward Orlaith Roche led the way with a couple of goals in a final where they were on top from the outset.
All-Ireland junior champions in 2018, the Cork side had eight different scorers over the course of the action as they convincingly secured their second national title of recent years. Roisin McHugh led the way for their opponents Ballinamore with a 0-5 haul, but while Aoibheann Flynn rattled the net, the Leitrim and Connacht champions came up short at the end of a memorable season.
Glanmire enjoyed the perfect start when attacker Michelle Dullea released full-forward Roche for a smooth goal with just over 90 seconds gone in the contest.
Ballinamore responded with a point from November’s Croke Park/LGFA Player of the Month McHugh, but Glanmire subsequently raised a second green flag on nine minutes when Evie Twomey fired clinically beyond the reach of opposition netminder Leighanne Flynn.
While a routine Dullea free moved the Leesiders six points clear, Ballinamore came roaring into the contest when Aoibheann Flynn – the match-winner in their dramatic semi-final victory against Steelstown Brian Ogs – superbly hammered home a 13th minute goal for the Leitrim and Connacht champions.
Yet this was only a minor speed bump for Glanmire, who went on to register unanswered points courtesy of Dullea, Cork senior star Abbie O’Mahony, Ava McCarthy and Ally McCarthy.
Although Ballinamore fired back with a second McHugh point, back-to-back efforts at the far end from Roche and Evie Twomey helped Glanmire to establish a commanding 2-7 to 1-2 interval lead.
Ballinamore were offered a reprieve early in the second half when Leighanne Flynn came to their rescue with an excellent stop from a penalty by Glanmire captain Ellen Twomey and McHugh then pointed her second free of the game to bring fresh life to their challenge.
Yet Glanmire continued to attack with a real purpose and superb individual goals by Roche and centre-forward Niamh McAllen brought them into a seemingly unassailable 13-point cushion (4-7 to 1-3) on 42 minutes.
McHugh had a penalty saved by Glanmire’s Ava Carey as Ballinamore fought gallantly inside the final-quarter, but with substitute Riona Crowley finally converting a spot-kick on 58 minutes, the Cork women secured the second-tier crown in fine style.
: O Roche 2-1, Evie Twomey 1-1, N McAllen, R Crowley 1-0, M Dullea 0-3 (2f), A O’Mahony, Ally McCarthy, Ava McCarthy 0-1 each.
: R McHugh 0-5 (4f), A Flynn 1-0, C O’Dowd 0-1.
: A Carey; E Dillon, M Barry, K O’Connor; C O’Donovan, Ellen Twomey, A Fitzgerald; A O’Mahony, E Murphy; Ally McCarthy, N McAllen, Ava McCarthy; Evie Twomey, O Roche, M Dullea.
: R Crowley for Ava McCarthy, C Murphy for O’Donovan (both 42), A O’Lehan for Dillon, A McAllen for Roche (both 47).
L Flynn; D McGourty, A Sweeney, E Honeyman; L Maguire, M Murphy, G Prior; M McGovern, C O’Dowd, L O’Dowd, R McHugh, L Moran; A Flynn, S McLoughlin, L Murphy.
C McGoldrick for Maguire (26), L Maguire for McGourty (40), E McKiernan for Murphy (54), A McGoldrick for Honeyman (58)
Siobhan Coyle (Donegal).