Mungret St Paul’s (Limerick) 0-12
Na Dúnaibh (Donegal) 0-4
By Daire Walsh
Mungret St Paul’s top scorer Gráinne McKenna said the foundation for their superb AIB All-Ireland JFC club title was laid in the opening half when they were playing against the breeze at Parnell Park.
The Limerick champions led by two points at the interval and never looked back when they had the wind behind them after the restart.
“Getting that good start was very, very important,” said McKenna. “Being against the breeze too, there was going to be a big risk of them kicking scores easily when they were playing with it.
“So we had to kind of go at it, because there’s no point in sitting back and just defending when we’re against the breeze. We just have to go at it. It’s just 30 minutes a half, it’s not a whole pile of time. You can’t just sit back and watch, you just have to go at it. Thank God we did and it worked well for us.”
Barney Curran, the Na Dúnaibh joint manager, said they knew they would be up against it but gave it everything they had.
“We’ve no complaints. We were beaten by a better team on the day. Everyone in the wee parish is bursting with pride for this wee group of girls. I’m just heartbroken for them. We’ve no qualms about it, Mungret were the better team on the day,” said Curran.
McKenna and Jayne Casey landed nine points between them to send the Limerick side on their way to victory.
Supplementing the 0-5 haul amassed by her experienced attacking colleague McKenna, Casey bagged two points in each half as they held their Donegal opponents scoreless in the second period.
Aiming to become the first Limerick side since Murroe/Boher in 2014 to win an All-Ireland junior ladies club title, Mungret opened up an early gap in this contest thanks to a brace of points from corner-forward Casey.
Na Dúnaibh eventually got moving through Lauren McBride’s successful free on six minutes and while Mungret responded with a place-ball effort from McKenna, the Donegal side brought the gap back down to the bare minimum when midfielder Caoimhe McLaughlin split the posts on the run in fine style.
Yet Mungret attacked in waves throughout the opening period and created additional daylight between themselves and their Ulster counterparts with unanswered points from Niamh O’Keeffe, Clare O’Meara and McKenna. However, after her goalbound strike rattled the woodwork off an earlier attack, Lauren McBride found the target from frees in the 27th and 29th minutes to leave Na Dúnaibh just two points in arrears at 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval.
Mungret reinforced their authority on the resumption with both Casey and McKenna increasing their personal tallies.
Industrious wing-forward Aoife Morrissey also got in on the scoring act, before McKenna and Casey once again raised white flags to leave Mungret eight points in front with just 13 minutes remaining on the clock and the outcome was never in doubt from there to the end with Na Dúnaibh, who missed a penalty, unable to close the gap.
Scorers – Mungret St Paul’s: G McKenna 0-5 (3f), J Casey 0-4, C O’Meara, A Morrissey, N O’Keeffe 0-1 each.
Na Dúnaibh: L McBride 0-3 (3f), C McLaughlin 0-1.
MUNGRET ST PAUL’S: C Bateman; C O’Neill, L Dunne, C Moloney; J Buckley, S Burke, M Clancy; A Ryan, C O’Meara; E O’Rourke, N O’Keeffe, A Morrissey; J Casey, G McKenna, N Crowley. Subs: Y Culhane for O’Rourke, F Morrissey for Crowley (both 38), C Coughlan for O’Keeffe (45), J O’Malley for Buckley (52), M O’Malley for Casey (55).
NA DUNAIBH: C Shevlin; J Roberts, C Hay, M Doherty; A O’Connell, E Trearty, M Wilkin; J Trearty, C McLaughlin; A McLaughlin, MT Boyce, S McBride; D Doherty, S McGroddy, L McBride. Subs: M O’Connell for Boyce (19), N Gallagher for Doherty (h-t), M Doherty for Wilkin (46), A Pasoma for C McLaughlin, D Shevlin for A McLaughlin (both 53).
Referee: Angela Gallagher (Meath).