Hungrier Royals Dethrone the Champions
Hungrier Royals Dethrone theChampions.
Super Sub Doherty the Heroine.
Meath 0-10 Dublin 0-9.
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Sixty four minutes gone at Naomh Mearnóg and Dublin on the attack. Thesides are level at nine points apiece. The Dublin forwards are holding the ballpassing it about hoping to create an opening that would provide a scoringopportunity. The ball comes to Niamh McEvoy who appears to have enough room tohave a go with the her left foot. She declines. Seconds later the move breaksdown and Meath come on a counterattack. The ball comes to super sub Ger Dohertyand she bisects the posts with her shot and this sends the Meath followers inthe crowd into a state of delirium. Shortly afterwards the final whistle isblown and the Leinster champions have been dethroned. Doherty who came on as asub in the seventeenth minute of the second half scored two quick-fire pointswith her first two touches and added the coupe de gráce, at the death, with thewinning point. So its through the qualifiers now for the All-Ireland champions.This was a very different Meath team to the one that lost in the division 2National League play-off a few weeks ago. They were up for this game right fromthe throw-in. Their work rate was immense as they hunted in packs. The Dublinforward line were seldom allowed any room to shoot at goal. Time and time againtheir passing movements went across the pitch and often backwards as theysought to create an opening. Gemma Fay sprinted forward tirelessly to help theattack but in all only nine shots on goal materialised in the opening half.Half forwards, Amy Connolly and Noelle Healy, worked from deep throughout thefirst half in an effort to break through that stubborn Meath defence.Invariably, many of these attacks ran into cul-de-sacs.
Yet going in at half time with Meath leading by 0-5 to 0-4 Dublin wouldhave felt confident that they had weathered the Royal storm as the visitorsplayed with benefit of a very strong wind in the first half. Meath couldnt have been too happy with their first half attackingperformance as they had created very few opportunities in that time. The Dublinback line always seemed to have a spare player covering in defence. This cameabout because Meath opted to play corner forward, Jenny Rispin, as a sweeper intheir own defence. Sinead Goldrick, Joanne O Sullivan and Ailish McKenna werewell in control. Only once in the opening thirty minutes did a Meath attack getbehind the Dublin defence and then corner forward, Vivienne McCormack, shothigh and over the bar. Midfielders, Denise Masterson and Niamh McEvoy workedtirelessly to supply ball to the forward line but too often Meaths blanket defence smothered the efforts time and timeagain. Sinead Aherne had the beating of her marker, Aedin Murray, butinvariably there was somebody else covering the situation. Orla Sheridan,Eileen Rahill, Shauna Bennett and Katie Allen all did their bit to curtail theDublin attacks. The experience of Louise McKeever was crucial to Meaths defensive efforts. Mary Sheridan worked tirelesslyin Meaths cause and if her shootinghad been more accurate the Royals could have been a few more points to the goodat half time. She ran at the Dublin defence at every opportunity. Fiona Mahonworked her socks off in the Royals cause.Interestingly by half time all of the Dublin full forward line, Elaine Kelly,Sinead Aherne and Amy Ring were on the score sheet. All of Dublins first half points had come from play whereas onlytwo of Meaths had done so.
The anticipated second half Dublin onslaught never occurred. Meath piledon the pressure from the throw-in and put the Dublin defence under pressure.Two minutes in and Shauna Bennett fielded an attempt on goal that was goingwide, stepped inside her marker and fired wide when a goal chance loomed. Despitethe fact that the angle was narrow the net should have bulged. Undeterred Meathkept the pressure on and an Elaine Duffy free after four minutes followed by aGrainne Nulty point two minutes later extended the lead to three points. ThenDuffy missed a free that would have further increased the lead. Now it wasDublins defence that was hunting inpacks trying to curtail the Royals. Dublin finally lifted the siege after tenminutes when Lyndsey Peat struck the ball straight and through between theposts. Then Duffy missed another point opportunity from a free. At last Dublinappeared to be getting the upper hand and two Sinead Aherne points, one from afree, had the sides level after eighteen minutes. But then enter Ger Doherty.She relaced free-taker, Elaine Duffy. Two points from her first two shots atgoal and suddenly the momentum had swung the Royals way again. But Dublin keptat it and an Aherne free and a well-taken Elaine Kelly point had the sideslevel with seven minutes remaining. Then in the twenty-sixth minute came thedefining moment when for once a Dublin forward got behind the Meath defence.Lyndsey Peats piledriver was brilliantlysaved by goalkeeper, Irene Munnelly and the Meath defence cleared their lines.It was ding dong from there to the finish until Ger Doherty made sure that thissemi-final would not be heading for extra time.
So Dublins defence of the BrendanMartin Cup now goes the qualifier route. It would be easy to say that theinjuries to Siobhan McGrath, Lyndsey Davey and Amy McGuinness were acontributing factor but against that Meath were without their top-scoringforward from the National League final, Ger Doherty, for most of the game.Meath were the hungrier side on the day and deserved their win. They will haveto analyse why it almost went to extra time. Dublin on the other hand will nowhave to come up with a plan to counteract blanket defences in future. Asidefrom that shooting from distance must be encouraged as they have the forwardswith the capability to take scores from out the field. Both management teamswill be anxious that their players eradicate the many handling errors that werea feature of this game. Nevertheless, Meath will bask in their moment of gloryas they set about preparing for the upcoming Leinster final.
Player of the Match - Mary Sheridan.
Dublin - C. O Connor, capt., S. Goldrick, J. O Sullivan, A. McKenna, C.Barrett, S. Furlong, G. Fay, D. Masterson, N. McEvoy, A. Connolly, L. Peat,(0-1), N. Healy, E. Kelly, (0-2), S. Aherne, (0-5, 2 frees), A. Ring (0-1).
Subs - S. Woods for A. Connolly and M. Nevin for N. Healy.
Meath - I. Munnelly, L. McKeever, A. Murray, O. Sheridan, S. Bennett, E.Rahill, K. Allen, K. O Brien, (0-1, free), G. Nulty, (0-1), capt., C. OShaughnessy, E. Duffy, (0-4, 3 frees), F. Mahon, J. Rispin, M. Sheridan, V.McCormack, (0-1).
Subs - C. OShaughnessy for E.Duffy, A. Carolan for J. Rispin and P. Sheridan for E. Rahill.
Sub - G. Doherty (0-3) for E.Duffy.
Referee - D. McEnery(Westmeath).
Report: Finbarr ODriscoll (Dublin PRO)
