Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final – Cork 1-9 Meath 1-9

Cork and Meath finished level at 1-9 to 1-9 in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final on Sunday September 10th at Croke Park.

REPORT: @OfficialCamogie Intermediate decider finishes level between @CorkCamogie and @OffMeathCamog ⬇️https://t.co/tdbPPfOrBs

— The GAA (@officialgaa) September 10, 2017

Meath and Cork draw Intermediate Camogie Final

All Ireland Intermediate Camogie Final

CORK 1-9 MEATH 1-9

By Daragh O’Conchuir at Croke Park for GAA.ie

Cork and Meath will have to do it all over again on October 1.

The Rebels would have been extremely disappointed had they let it slip for a second consecutive year, however, as they led for the majority of proceedings and wasted a couple of gilt-edged opportunities with some dreadful wides in the final quarter in particular.

It would have been hard on Meath to lose out too, however, as they showed tremendous grit to drag themselves back level after falling four points behind in the first half, and then recovering from the concession of a goal just before the break to reel in a similar deficit in the second period.

Both full-forward lines came into the game as the strongest sections of each unit and they advertised their talents especially in a more fluid opening period although they were shackled well in a tight second half.

Rachel O’Shea opened the scoring for Cork and by the 10th minute, her colleagues on the inside line, Caroline Sugrue and Linda Collins had also gotten off the mark.

Keeva McCarthy shot a brace, the second a really well-crafted score after good work by Sugrue and Collins as Cork went 0-6 to 0-2 ahead, but Meath responded with four in a row, Jane Dolan converting three frees and Sinéad Hackett slotting well.

McCarthy was on target once more for Cork however before Katelyn Hickey finished brilliantly to the corner of the Meath net to make it 1-7 to 0-6 at the change of ends.

The second half lacked the fluidity of the first, although it had a rip-roaring start, with Amy Gaffney pointing directly from the throw-in, and then Kristina Troy blasting a goal just over a minute later.

That score was all about Aoife Minogue as the young Dunderry forward drew the cover with a powerful run through the middle and timed her pass to perfection. Troy made no mistake despite Amy Lee, who had a fine game, closing in.

Player of the match Finola Nevile and O’Shea moved Cork ahead quickly, but the Leesiders failed to score in the last 26 minutes, including three of injury time.

Dillon halved the gap in the 52nd minute, but it wasn’t until the second minute of injury time that she was able to hit the leveller, just after Hickey had been sent off for a second yellow card offence.

Scorers for Cork: R O’Shea (1f), K McCarthy (2fs) 0-3 each, K Hickey 1-0, F Neville, L Collins, C Sugrue 0-1 each.

Scorers for Meath: J Dolan 0-5 (fs), K Troy 1-0, S Hackett 0-2, A Gaffney, A Minogue (f) 0-1 each.

CORK: A Lee, L Weste, S Harrington, N Ní Chaoimh, R Kileen, S Buckley, L Callanan, F Neville, J Barry, K Hickey, K McCarthy, M McCarthy, R O’Shea, L Collins, C Sugrue
Subs: M Buckley for M McCarthy (46), S Fahy for O’Shea (60).

MEATH: E Mangan, E Coffey, C Coffey, E Burke, Á Keogh, A Maguire, L Donoghue, C O’Brien, M Thynne, A Gaffney, K Troy, A Minogue, C Quinn, J Dolan, S Hackett
Sub: A Slattery for Quinn (43).

REFEREE: L Dempsey (Kilkenny).

Match Preview

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final

Cork v Meath, Croke Park, 2pm

By Daragh Ó Conchúir

MEATH are appearing in their first Intermediate Final, while Cork are returning to the scene of the crime after being edged out by a point by Kilkenny in last year’s deciding outcome.
It has taken the Royals a little while to establish themselves in the second tier after enjoying Croke Park glory when annexing the Premier Junior crown in 2012. They showed that they had found their feet when winning the National League Division 2 title last season however and spent the spring this term in the rarefied atmosphere of Division 1.

There were some tough outings as they failed to collect anything in terms of points but the experience of operating at a quicker level and higher intensity than anything they would have been accustomed to was invaluable.
John Davis’ crew finished the campaign positively, losing by just two points to Offaly, who missed out on making the knockout stages of the Senior Championship on score difference by one point. Meath carried that form right through the Championship. Although drawing to Down, they had earlier edged out Cork in a cracker by 3-9 to 0-17 in Trim, assuring themselves of top seeding in the Semi-Finals.

There the Royals met old rivals Kildare. Buoyed by a quick goal from Kristina Troy and a strong final quarter that yielded seven successive points after falling two points behind, they were able to concede a late goal and still prevail by two.

Jane Dolan has long been acknowledged as one of the most dangerous forwards in the land but she has strong support in the likes of Troy, Megan Thynne, Aoife Minogue and Cheyenne O’Brien. Cork will be concerned by the three goals they conceded when the sides met on July 8th but apart from that, they have enjoyed a flawless season. The League ended with a 14-point defeat of Derry and they repeated that win over a side that had been campaigning in the top tier for the previous four years in the Championship Semi-Final.

The margin this time around was 10 points. Linda Collins, who scored 1-5 from play in last year’s All-Ireland and played along with Jennifer Barry in this year’s National League Division 1 decider, did the damage with two goals. Finola Neville, Lauren Callanan and Amy Lee are just some of the others with Senior experience. Keeva McCarthy and Maeve McCarthy are other threatening attackers capable of scuppering Meath’s dreams.