Cork 0-12 Dublin 0-10
Eamonn Ryan’s Cork team aren’t stopping for anyone. Another year down, another title up. They made harder work of putting Dublin away here than they would have liked but they’re too long in the tooth now to fret over quality. Get in, get out, get the cup on the bus. The roll of honour doesn’t come with style points.
They had two points to spare at the end, thanks in the main to a burst of scoring just after half-time. Valerie Mulcahy had an odd day in front of goal, finishing the game’s top scorer but scattering some unthinkable wides as well. Her three points at the start of the second half were what gave Cork breathing space though. Enough to see them home, however messily.
“The first 10 minutes after half-time we popped over a few points,” said captain Ciara O’Sullivan afterwards. “They were the kind of scores we’d missed in the first half with wides and bad choices for shots. That 10 minutes was very important but we did sit back a bit and let Dublin come at us afterwards. If there were another match to play that’s what we’d be working on.”
There isn’t though. For the 10th year out of 11, Cork have won the last game of the year. In a game of bluff and double-bluff, both teams set up with a sweeper and worked to negate the other. Attackers were crowded out and made to shoot from distance. Though the wide-count ended up quite low - nine for Cork, seven for Dublin - the amount of shots that dropped into either goalkeeper’s chest was a tribute to the defensive structures on both sides. Not that Ryan was of a mind to take much credit.
“Everybody talks about defensive systems,” said Ryan afterwards, “but I think you have to rationalise the thing. We are playing in the same field as 130 years ago, we have the same number of players, we have much better conditions under foot, much better boots and better footballs. To that you mix supremely fit athletes, so it’s no wonder there are crowds around the ball.
“I think it’s too simplistic maybe sometimes for onlookers or pundits to say, ‘They were very defensive.’ If you are hopping out of your trousers and you’ve trained for 100 nights and you lose the ball 45 yards from their goal and it goes up towards your goal, what are you going to do if you are a top-class athlete but get back?”
And so it went. The first half ended gridlocked at 0-5 to 0-5. Valerie Mulcahy and Carla Rowe swapped frees at either end but Cork were able to lay claim to a greater spread of scorers from play. Doireann and Ciara O’Sullivan both kicked fine points, seen and raised by Rena Buckley’s effort on 23 minutes, the best score of the half.
Once Mulcahy kicked into gear after the break, it looked certain that Cork were going to ease home. But some sloppy wides - including three in 90 seconds when the score stood at 0-10 to 0-8 midway through the second half - meant they idled in front. They were fashioning chances with greater regularity and without having to do nearly as much legwork but weren’t putting Dublin to sleep.
Back came McGonigle’s side. Sarah McCaffrey came off the bench to spark a revival with a smartly-clipped score. Lyndsey Davey was dangerous all day without having a lot of help in the Dublin attack but with five minutes to go she sent Rowe away for another point to reduce the margin to one. Squeaky-bum time.
Step forward Mulcahy. One last free to keep their heads above water. Forty metres out, straight in front of the posts. No mistake. Cork had to spend the closing minutes camped in front of their goal but when the threat was greatest, another of the originals Bríd Stack leapt in front of a Sinead Goldrick shot to seal another five-in-a-row.
“We didn’t talk about it all year but now that we have the All-Ireland, it’s great to be able to say we got five in a row,” said Mulcahy afterwards. “Myself and Deirdre O’Reilly are around since the time we couldn’t win a championship match at all. So we’re drawing on that, the past and the poor times, to really appreciate these times.”
On they go. We see this Cork team as a monolith but really they’re Trigger’s Broom - ever changing and always the same. Six of them have been there from the start but most of them have come along in their own time. Eimear Scally, the substitute who energised them when she came on in the second half, was eight when Briege Corkery and the others won their first title. Now she’s a double senior All-Ireland winner even though she’s only just about to leave minor.
Cork will go on for some time yet.
Cork: M O'Brien; M Ambrose, B Stack, A Barrett; V Foley, D O'Reilly, G O'Flynn; R Buckley (0-1), B Corkery; C O'Sullivan (0-1), A Hutchings, A Walsh; V Mulcahy (0-7, 0-6 frees), Á O'Sullivan, D O'Sullivan (0-2). Subs: R Phelan for O'Flynn (15), E Scally (0-1) for Á O'Sullivan (39), O Finn for Hutchings (42), R Ní Bhuachalla for Walsh (49).
Dublin: C Trant; O Carey, M Uí Scanaill, F Hudson; S Furlong, S Finnegan, C Barrett; M Lamb, S Goldrick; N Healy, A Connolly (0-1), C Rowe (0-6, 0-5 frees); N McEvoy (0-1), L Davey (0-1), H Noonan. Subs: K Flood for Noonan (h.t.), N Owens for Barrett (39), N Collins for Hudson (47), S McCaffrey (0-1) for Connolly (51), N Rickard for Goldrick (56).
Referee: J Niland (Sligo).
