Gaelic Games

Oulart back on top of camogie’s club tree

Experienced Wexford stars backbone win over Galway’s Mullagh

Oulart’s Karen Atkinson lifts the Bill Carroll Cup.
Oulart’s Karen Atkinson lifts the Bill Carroll Cup.
Sun Mar 01 2015 - 17:45

Oulart-The-Ballagh (Wexford) 3-13

Mullagh (Galway) 0-7

Oulart-The-Ballagh returned to the top of the club camogie tree with a convincing victory in the AIB All-Ireland senior club camogie final at Croke Park.

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The Wexford squad is laced with experience, with four players who captained the county to All-Ireland glory in recent years in this year’s successful club captain Karen Atkinson, Ursula Jacob and the Leacy sisters, Mary and Una.

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They are renowned for their goal threat and with Mullagh guilty of some lax defending, capitalised to establish their supremacy. They found the net inside the first minute and, with two more in the second half, established a strong lead that Mullagh were always unlikely to reel in, given the lack of any real goal chances of their own.

The Connacht crew were caught napping after just 40 seconds, when two Oulart forwards managed to drift on to a loose ball behind the defence and it was Stacey Kehoe that sent a first-time shot off the sod beyond Catriona Daly for a goal. Rachel Monaghan converted a free for Mullagh but Ursula Jacob did likewise at the other end of the field and Shelly Kehoe put four points between them.

The Galwegians were hanging on and it took a brilliant point-blank save by Daly to deny Una Leacy a second Oulart goal. Mullagh seemed to settle a bit after that and there were indications that they possessed the speed on the flanks to trouble the 2012 victors’ defence.

Monaghan converted a couple of frees but missed two more chances and with Jacob unerring at the other end, slotting three in a row, Oulart began to open up a bit of a gap. Una Leacy finished excellently off her left after a strong catch under pressure from Sarah Dervan and that left Philip Rossiter’s team leading by 1-6 to 0-3 at the interval.

Mullagh showed real intent at the start of the second half but Monaghan’s pointed free was all they had to show for it. Instead, Una Leacy pounced on some hesitancy in the Mullagh full-back line to stab home from close range in the 40th minute and her little jig of delight told you that she knew it was a key score.

Packie Dervan’s charges never stopped trying but there wasn’t the same belief about them after that score. Louise Sinnott had the simple task of grabbing Oulart’s third goal in the 47th minute, having been left completely unattended, seconds before being replaced. Stacey Kehoe, Jacob, Diane Ryan and Shelly Kehoe added white flags to leave Oulart-The Ballagh 15 points to the good when the final whistle was sounded.

OULART-THE BALLAGH: H Jacob; C Storey, K Atkinson, C Atkinson; S Redmond, M Leacy, A O’Connor; Shelly Kehoe (0-2), S Sinnott; D Ryan (0-1), Stacey Kehoe (1-2), L Sinnott (1-0), A Brennan, U Leacy (1-1), U Jacob (0-7, 6 frees). Subs: Laura Sinnott for Louise Sinnott (47), B Redmond for O’Connor (59), a Moran for Brennan (59), Sharon Kehoe for Ryan (59)

MULLAGH: C Daly; J Cone, S Dervan, C Donohue; D Kelly S Catalan, N O’Brien; L Monaghan, T Manton; R Monaghan (0-6, frees), C Glennon, P Manning, C Bowes, A Donohue (0-1), K Kennedy. Subs: A Clarke for Kennedy (ht), C Hardiman for Manning (57)

Referee: C Egan (Cork)