TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship: Emphatic Mayo book quarter-final place

TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship: Mayo 2-15 Laois 0-8

A haul of 2-9 from Sinéad Cafferky and Sinéad Walsh secured an emphatic home win to ensure Mayo advanced to the TG4 All-Ireland quarter finals.

Victory was never in doubt for the Connacht champions at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, as Mayo enjoyed near total dominance from start to finish against a Laois squad who now bow out of the championship.

With the aid of the wind, Michael Moyles’ women started the game with seven points on the bounce.

The impressive Sinéad Cafferky – who lined out without her sister Lisa – finished the half with 0-4 while the equally excellent Walsh struck 1-2.

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Laois struggled to create many meaningful scoring opportunities and didn’t get the scoreboard moving until Mo Nerney and Anna Healey pointed after 14 and 18 minutes.

Laois did managed to mount several good attacks but fortune wasn’t on their side.

It was all Mayo again at the start of the second half, with Deirdre Doherty landing a free before Cafferky rattled the net after receiving a pass from Shauna Howley.

Walsh had to settle for only a point from two goal chances as Mayo cruised home with a second-half haul of 1-6.

Laois enjoyed a lot more possession and carried the ball better but only got four points for their efforts in the second half as both sides failed to make good goal chances count.

MAYO: L Brennan; É Ronayne (0-1), C McManamon, D Caldwell; S Lally, C Needham (0-1), K Sullivan (capt.); A Geraghty, F McHale; M Cannon, S Cafferky (1-4), S Delaney; S Howley (0-3, 0-1 free), D Doherty (0-1 free), S Walsh (1-5). Subs: M Reilly for D Doherty (40), S Tierney for F McHale (44), R Durkan for K Sullivan (49), E Murray for C Needham (50).

LAOIS: N Luttrell; S Farrelly, C Dunne, A Kelly; S Havill, E Healy (0-1) (capt.), L Nerney; A Healy (0-1), O Hennessy; E Galvin (0-1), L.M. Maher, A Moran; S.A. Fitzgerald (0-2, 0-2 frees), M Nerney (0-3, 0-2 frees), K Donoghue. Subs: A Kirrane for K Donoghue (44), G Moran for O Hennessy (46).

Referee: Maggie Farrelly (Cavan)

TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship: Cork 8-12 Tipperary 2-3

Cork went on a goalscoring rampage to confidently march into the TG4 All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals following a one-sided defeat of Tipperary in Clonakilty.

Seven different players found the net for Cork as Tipperary were blown away by an early goal blitz from Shane Ronayne’s side.

It was a real show of strength from Cork as they got their championship campaign firmly back on track.

Five goals inside the opening quarter did the damage as Eimear Kiely, Máire O’Callaghan, Orlaith Cahalane, Anna Ryan and Daire Kiely (penalty) found the net.

Overcoming the loss of Eimear Kiely to injury, Cork led 5-8 to 1-3 at the break with a brace of points from Emma Morrissey and 1-1 from Aishling Moloney all Tipperary had to show.

And when Moloney got in for her second goal for Tipperary, there was a hint of a revival from the visitors in Clonakilty.

But Cork regrouped and easily saw out the victory and their safe passage to the quarter-finals of this season’s race for the TG4 All-Ireland title.

CORK: M O’Sullivan; M Duggan, E Meaney, R Phelan; A Ryan (2-0), S Kelly, L O’Mahony (0-1); M O’Callaghan (capt.) (1-0), H Looney (0-4); D Kiely (1-1), E Cleary (0-1), C O’Sullivan (0-1); O Cahalane (1-0), D O’Sullivan (0-3, 0-2 frees), E Kiely (1-0). Subs: A Ring (0-1) for E Kiely (16, inj), B O’Sullivan (1-0) for Cleary (46, inj), D Kiniry (1-0) for Cahalane (52), A O’Mahony for Ryan (52, inj).

TIPPERARY: L Fitzpatrick; E Kelly, L Spillane; E Cronin; M Curley (capt.), L Morrissey, C O’Dwyer; E Morrissey (0-2), L Dillon; S English, K Downey, C English; A McGuigan, N Martin, A Moloney (2-1). Subs: A Delaney for C English (37), S Ryan for L Morrissey (40), N Spillane for Dillon (42), E O’Sullivan for Downey (42).

Referee: Jonathan Murphy (Carlow)

TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship: Kerry 2-21 Cavan 2-5

Cáit Lynch led the way as table-toppers Kerry booked a home quarter-final in the race for the TG4 All-Ireland title, beating Cavan by 16 points at Austin Stack Park in Tralee. The lethal Kerry full forward line of Siofra O’Shea, Caoimhe Evans and Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh contributed 1-9 to Kerry’s total.

Cavan played with the breeze in the first-half but with Kerry building a 1-10 to 1-4 interval lead, it was always going to be a difficult task for the Breffni side to get back into contention.

The Kingdom were rocked when the dangerous Geraldine Sheridan struck for a goal after nine minutes.

But corner back Ciara Murphy struck a well worked goal for Kerry in the 14th minute to bring her side right back into the contest.

Kerry outscored Cavan by 0-6 to 0-1 for the remainder of the first half though with Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Louise Galvin, Niamh Carmody, Anna Galvin, Amy Harrington and O’Leary doing the damage, and although O’Shea was unlucky to spurn a goal chance, Kerry took a 1-10 to 1-4 lead in at half time.

Aisling Gilsenan got Cavan off the mark 40 seconds into the second half with a free but by the 46th minute Kerry had raced 1-16 to 1-5 lead. A minute later O’Shea then lobbed Roisin O’Reilly with a deft flick after a fine ball from substitute Fiadhna Tangney and at 2-16 to 1-5 it really was game over.

Geraldine Smith scored a consolation goal in the 31st minute for Cavan but the last score of the game fell to Kerry’s Erica McGlynn and Kerry march forward to a home All Ireland quarter final whilst it’s a relegation play-off that awaits Cavan.

KERRY: C Butler; A Doherty, K Cronin, C Murphy (1-0); C Lynch, E Costello, C McCarthy; L Galvin (0-1), A Harrington (0-1); N Carmody (0-1), D O’Leary (0-4), A Galvin (0-1); S O’Shea (1-2), C Evans (0-2), L Ní Mhuircheartaigh (0-5, 0-2 frees). Subs: N Broderick for McCarthy (42), R Dwyer (0-3, 0-1 free) for Ní Mhuircheartaigh (46), F Tangney for L Galvin (47), S Fitzpatrick for Murphy (52), E McGlynn (0-1) for A Galvin (51).

CAVAN: R O’Reilly; C Madden S Lynch, C Charters; E Madden (0-1), C Brady, R O’Reilly; N Byrd, M Cusack; A Walls, A Sheridan (0-1), E Halton (0-1); G Smith (1-0), G Sheridan (1-1), A Gilsenan (0-1 free). Subs: N Keenaghan for Halton (36), K McCormack for Walls (46), A Cahill for Madden (47), C McCaffrey for Cusack (47), A Smith for R O’Reilly (59).

Referee: Patrick Smith (Waterford)

TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship: Donegal 1-10 Meath 0-12

Susanne White and Karen Guthrie kicked late points at Páirc Tailteann as Donegal got the better of defending champions Meath to claim top spot in Group 2 of the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

White ended the game with an impressive haul of 0-5, while the outstanding Niamh Hegarty also registered 1-3 in an excellent individual display. Emma Duggan (0-7), Vikki Wall and Niamh O’Sullivan (0-2 each) flew the flag for Meath, but the Royals face an away trip in the quarter-finals as a result of finishing second in the group.

Although O’Sullivan and Duggan (free) pointed for Meath in the early exchanges, Donegal sparked into life after corner-forward Hegarty hammered the ball to the net on eight minutes off a Katy Herron pass.

White swiftly added to their total with a pointed free, before the in-form Hegarty also raised a white flag to give Donegal a 1-2 to 0-2 cushion at the end of the opening quarter. The influential Duggan and Katie Long cancelled each other out with points at either end, in advance of the aforementioned White and Hegarty bolstering their personal tallies.

While Meath did fire back from here with three points on the trot courtesy of Duggan (two) and Meadhbh Byrne, a White free on the stroke of half-time offered the O’Donnell County a 1-6 to 0-6 interval advantage.

Yet despite Donegal kick-starting the second period with another Hegarty point, Wall and her Dunboyne club-mate Duggan split the uprights to keep the Meath challenge alive.

Donegal interrupted this scoring sequence with another White free, only for the wind-assisted Royals to restore parity by the 46th minute thanks to three unanswered points via the boots of O’Sullivan, Duggan and Wall.

The visitors then breathed a sigh of relief when Meath’s Byrne had a goal disallowed for a square ball, but Maxi Curran’s side were suddenly back in sight of a second consecutive group win when White knocked over another free on 55 minutes.

Meath also lost midfielder Aoife Minogue to the sin-bin at this juncture and having been replaced at the break, Guthrie was introduced off the bench for a second time to edge the northern outfit two points in front during the dying moments.

Duggan’s seventh point cut the gap down to the bare minimum, but Donegal held out against the reigning TG$ All-Ireland champions to earn themselves a home quarter-final.

DONEGAL: C Friel; N Carr, A Temple-Asokuh, E Gallagher; A Boyle Carr, Nicole McLaughlin, T Hegarty; R Rodgers, Niamh McLaughlin; S White (0-5, five frees), K Long (0-1), K Dowds; N Hegarty (1-3), K Herron, S McGroddy. Subs: K Guthrie for McGroddy (20), N Boyle for Guthrie (0-1, one free), C McGarvey for Long (52), Guthrie for White (58).

MEATH: M McGuirk; A Sheridan, MK Lynch, K Newe; M Byrne (0-1), S Ennis, N Gallogly; M O’Shaughnessy, A Minogue; M Thynne, V Wall (0-2), E Duggan (0-7, six frees); O Lally, S Grimes, N O’Sullivan (0-2). Sub: C Smyth for Byrne (58).

Ref: Declan Carolan (Armagh).