Kilkerrin-Clonberne (Galway) 0-13; Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) 0-9
Kilmacud fought might and main but ultimately had to bow the knee to a slightly superior Kilkerrin-Clonberne side who completed a rare four-in-a-row of SF club titles at Croke Park on Saturday evening.
Chloe Miskell led the way for the holders by kicking four points with the excellent Olivia Divilly and Eva Noone also contributing on the scoreboard as they kept the South Dublin club at arm’s length going down the home straight.
Crokes big guns found it hard to impress their A game but Niamh Cotter did her best with a pair of early scores and ended up with seven of the nine scores her side got accredited to her name.
Crokes found themselves constantly on the back foot and it took a superlative save from a penalty by Galwegian Dearbhla Gower to keep her side in the game as early as the 12th minutes of the game.
The champions refused to let this reverse affect them and showed their mettle by coming forward and scoring four unanswered points from Eva Noone, Miskell, Niamh Divilly and Louise Ward to lead by 0-8 to 0-4 at the break, all the loser's scores coming from Cork-born Cotter.
That margin was more or less maintained to the end as the teams traded scores despite Crokes best efforts to move up a gear for the last stanza of play.
Paddy O’Donoghue side lost nothing in how they fought for dear life to go one better than last year’s semi-final defeat to the same opposition after extra-time, but once again when they seemed to be getting places, the Galway girls had an answer with the Divilly sisters, Olivia and Siobhan, sticking over sucker punches within less than a minute to ease Western hearts in the stands.
When Cotter cut the margin to three with her seventh effort of the late afternoon, it was Olivia Divilly who again shower her scoring class by getting the point which ensure that the title would remain in Galway for at least another year.
Kilkerrin-Clonberne: L Murphy; C Costello, S Gormally, N Divilly (0-1); K Mee, N Ward, H Noone; S Divilly (0-1), A Madden; O Divilly (0-3, 0-2f), L Ward (0-1), L Noone; E Noone (0-3, 0-2f), A Morrissey, C Miskell (0-4) Subs: A Madden for N Divilly (53), C Boyle for Morrissey (56).
Kilmacud Crokes: D Gower; N Carr, E Sweeney, P Greene; A Kane (0-1), M Lamb, K Murray; G Kós, L Magee; N Cotter (0-7, 0-5f), A Davoren, M Jennings; A Conroy, M Davoren, É Rutledge (0-1) Subs: C Regan for Greene (38), L Kane for Conroy (45), S O'Donoghue for A Kane (47), D Egan for Jennings (60).
Ref: G Finnegan (Down).
In the photo below, Sarsfields of Galway celebrate with the trophy after their All Ireland camogie club championship win at Croke Park. [Inpho: Laszlo Geczo]
