Dublin 0-18; Kerry 1-10
It wasn’t exactly Phoenix rising from the ashes but for winning Dublin manager Mick Bohan, there was certainly a feeling of having travelled a long journey in a very short time.
After the halcyon days of his four-in-a-row Dublin ladies triumph from 2017 to 2020, he almost balked at the thoughts of creating a second winning squad before stepping away.
The force he put together however fused like never before and from November ‘22 to last Sunday his mixing and matching of old and new provided the perfect storm for victory over a crestfallen Kerry team who suffered the ignominy of two final defeats in a row (having lost in 2022 to Meath). Something, he said, had come “out of the ashes” in the past months.
Such was the ferocity that this blue gale whipped up at Croke Park in front of just over 45,000 fans on Sunday that the game was as good as over thanks to the leadership of former rugby winning Six Nations star Hannah Tyrrell who by the short whistle had eight points to her credit as Dublin led by 0-11 to 0-4 at that stage.
While it was always unlikely that she could replicate such a one-half showing on the changeover, her contribution was such that she was the outstanding candidate for MVP at the end of the game in a team where the old heads such as Marty Byrne, Lauren Magee, Jennifer Dunne and skipper Carla Rowe all stood up on the big occasion.
And while Dublin had pushed their lead out to nine points after 50 minutes, it was good for them that they had such a wide margin for Kerry, despite virtually nothing going right on the day, still had the DNA to mount a grandstand finish with talisman Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh grabbing a late goal and points from free to cut the margin at one stage to only four points.
Dublin had the emphatic last say on the occasion when Rowe made a mazy run from midfield to clip over an insurance score before preparing her speech from the Hogan Stand as she collected the Brendan Martin Cup.
After the game, Bohan savored the delight of victory and was thrilled to see two players just out of the minor grade Niamh Donlon and Niamh Crowley, become part of his winning defense. Indeed, only eight of Sunday’s lineout played in the 2021 final loss to Meath - a changing of the guard for sure.
Ironically, it was a first celtic cross for Tyrrell as her exploits in other sports, most notably Irish rugby for six years, meant she had missed the four-time high-water marks. So that and the fact that she has just become a new mum made the day all the more special for the Na Fianna forward.
From the start, you didn’t need to be a genius to see that one team were so ready for the fray that they hit the ground running with Tyrrell scoring and making a point for impressive centre-forward Orla Nolan within the first 50 seconds.
The initial Kerry attacks also suggested that Dublin had got the marking jobs spot on with Leah Caffrey not content to spoil on Kerry’s star forward Ni Mhuircheartaigh but to try to get out first to the ball.
With young Crowley also doing an exceptionally tight marking job on Hannah O'Donoghue, the fear from the green and gold management was where would Kerry get their scores?
AFLW bound Dunne turned in another massive shift at midfield and her two points off either foot showed why her athleticism and accuracy is so much sought after halfway around the world.
Arguably the most influential player in terms of possession retention and time on the ball was former AFLW player Lauren Magee, daughter of former Dublin legend Johnny Magee, whose switch to half-back from midfield this year proved a calculated gamble which paid off in spades.
Soaking up the occasion and the victory, Bohan said afterwards: "Incredible. I thought their work-rate was immense. We’d obviously been on the receiving end twice from Kerry and we know how good they are. The work this group has done, we had no choice.”
He went on: "We were on our knees back in October/November time. When you win something, people kind of dismiss that a little bit. If you knew where we were and we were trying to maximize everything we had. Genuinely, the group will tell you this, we were just trying to make this thing competitive.
"We didn’t foresee this. There is a little bit of knowledge around the scenes in this camp. The likes of Frankie Roebuck and Seaghan Kearney, Paul Casey and Derek Murray. Guys who have soldiered with the lads’ teams. That bit of knowledge and as Frankie kept telling me all year, you don’t have to have the best deck to win the card game.
"Sami Dowling came in with us this year as an S&C and he’s brought a completely new level to it. We’ve seen that in all of the sessions, they just worked their backsides off. That is obviously the most important trait in sport, regardless of what you do.
"You obviously have to have knowledge and you have to have a little bit of savvy as to how to manage the games, but if you don’t work, you’re not in the ball park. All year we’d seen that. That day in Parnell Park against Kerry, we saw. Seven points down and they came, and they fought for everything," he said proudly.
Kerry showed commendable fortitude in the face of adversity and refused to throw in the towel until the final whistle. Ní Mhuircheartaigh’s 1-7 made her the game’s top scorer but her despair afterwards during the presentation suggested she felt she had not brought anything like her A game to the party…. Beidh lá eile, gan dabht!
Joint Kerry manager Declan Quill was disappointed but praised his charges for never giving up. "The girls put their heart and soul into it and there's no doubting that, and everybody knows that. But at the end of the day, Dublin were just that superior team on the day. That's it, finals, you know, they take a shape of their own at times and they got off to a great start and I suppose we were chasing it for the rest of the game. There's nothing we can say that's going to make it any better right now.”
Dublin: A Shiels; L Caffrey, N Donlon, N Crowley; A Kane, M Byrne, L Magee; J Dunne (0-2), E O'Dowd; C O'Connor (0-1), O Nolan (0-1), K Sullivan (0-1); H Tyrrell (0-8, 0-4f), J Egan, C Rowe (0-4, 0-1f) Subs: E Gribben for Egan h/t, N Hetherton (0-1) for Kane 41, S Aherne for Sullivan 52, D Lawless for Gribben 58.
Kerry: C Butler; K Cronin, E Lynch, C Murphy; A O'Connell (0-1), E Costello, C Lynch; L Scanlon, L Galvin; N Carmody (0-2), N Ni Chonchuir, A Galvin; H O'Donoghue, D O'Leary, L Ni Mhuircheartaigh (1-7, 0-6f) Subs M O'Connell for Galvin h/t, S O'Shea for O'Donoghue 42, A Harrington for Ni Chonchuir 47.
Ref: S Curley (Galway).
Carlow SHC Final
Rangers reach summit in Carlow
Mount Leinster Rangers 3-19 St Mullins 1-17
Mount Leinster Rangers are back at the summit of Carlow hurling after this emphatic eight-point victory over rivals St Mullins at Dr Cullen Park on Sunday.
They went about their business with a great hunger from the throw in and at the interval, they were almost home and hosed as they led by 3-9 to 0-10.
St Mullins just couldn’t get going on the day and even though Jason O'Neill got in for a goal, Rangers kept the scoreboard ticking over with the likes of Donagh Murphy, Ciaran Kavanagh, Chris Dolan and Tim Brennan landing huge scores when needed.
Mount Leinster Rangers: F Foley; M Doyle, D Byrne, S Joyce; G Lawlor, K McDonald, R Coady; F Fitzpatrick (1-0), T Joyce (0-1); D Tobin (1-0), J Nolan (0-2), C Nolan (1-9, 0-4fs); D Murphy (0-3), E Byrne, C Kavanagh (0-3) Subs: T Lawlor for G Lawlor (18), E Kealy for T Lawlor (24), P Coady for Murphy (53), T Brennan (0-1) for Tobin (57),
St Mullins: K Kehoe; J Doran, P Doyle, M Walsh; P O'Shea, P Kehoe, E O’Shea; J Kavanagh (0-2), J Doyle (0-1); M Kavanagh (0-9, 0-4fs, 0-2-65s), J Doyle, C Kehoe (0-1); J O’Neill (1-1), P Boland, P Connors Subs: S Murphy (0-2) for Connors (h/t), G Coady for O’Shea (h/t), E Doyle (0-1) for J Doyle (53), O Ryan for O’Shea (56).
Ref: D Hickey (Fenagh).
