St. Rynaghs Outlast Birr To Claim Fifth Offaly Camogie Title In Succession

It was Birr's first tilt at a crown since 2014.

St Rynaghs 3-19

Birr 2-13

Birr’s last appearance in a Senior Camogie Final was in 2014 when they pipped Shinrone to the title. At that stage St Rynaghs had never been in a Senior Final and had to wait until 2017 to achieve that. However, they have gone on to make up for lost time and going into Saturday’s final they had won the last 4 finals. Add to that the fact that they were unbeaten in this year’s Championship one could see that the task facing Birr was daunting to say the least.

Despite the rain in the days leading up to the match and a lot of fixtures being played there recently, the pitch in St Brendan’s Park was in excellent condition and the sun shone gloriously for the Final.

Birr made to some changes to the team listed in the programme, with Hannah Feenane replacing Ellen Regan in the starting line up and Orlagh Kirwan moving into full forward as Birr tried to manage a knee injury she was carrying.

Once play got underway, Birr got the start they would have wished for and put two points over from the talented hands of Sarah Harding. St Rynaghs had a goal opportunity when a run from Grainne Dolan ended with Siobhan Flannery hitting the side netting which initially was greeted with cheers from the St Rynaghs supporters but those cheers were soon mirrored by the Birr faithful when the realised the ball had gone wide. After a nervous start from St Rynaghs, a Kate Kenny point helped settle them and this was followed by another from Linda Sullivan.

Birr were the first to hit the back of the net, after an initial save from Ellen Gilligan in the St Rynaghs goal was followed by a goal mouth scramble before Orlagh Kirwan whipped on the ball to drive it home. Birr were now taking advantage of the strong wind and were playing in packs, not giving the St Rynaghs forwards any time on the ball, but St Rynaghs were not far behind with their first goal after an excellent run of passes which resulted with Kate Kenny finishing brilliantly. When referee Kieran Dooley blew for the first half water break Birr may have been disappointed to be trailing 1-6 to 1-3 having played so well in the earlier parts of the game.

After the break St Rynagh started to show their dominance and were rewarded with another goal by Kate Kenny. Birr were hit with a further blow in this quarter when the afore mentioned injury that Orlagh Kirwan was carrying came back to haunt her and resulted in her being substituted and Birr would miss her dangerous attacking play for the rest of the game. St Rynaghs continued to dominate and went on to lead by 2-11 to 1-8 at half time.

In the 2nd half St Rynaghs showed why they were the leading team in Offaly as they continued to pick off points and built up a comfortable lead. Birr did have a purple patch where they took advantage of mistakes by St Rynaghs and with the help of a Sarah Harding goal they managed to reduce the deficit to 5 points at the 2nd half water break. However, this was as near as Birr would get and despite throwing everything at the St Rynaghs defence they were unable to make further inroads into the deficit.

With 12 minutes to go a Katie O’Connell gave a great pass to Siobhan Flannery who had nothing but goal on her mind and Caoimhe Kinsella in the Birr goal had no chance as Flannery flashed the ball to the net. St Rynaghs had other goal opportunities in the dying moments of the game but Kinsella and her defence managed to hold firm but it was academic at this stage as St Rynaghs went on to close the game out winning comfortably and retain their title.

Afterwards Mairead Daly was awarded Player of the Match before Robbie Bergin presented the RJ Barber Cup to St Rynaghs captain, Grainne Dolan to start the chants of 5 in a row from the champions. Worryingly for the other Senior teams in Offaly, this St Rynaghs team show no signs of slowing down and one would wonder how long this juggernaut will continue to dominate in the county.

Teams:

St Rynaghs: Ellen Gilligan, Sinead Moran, Elaine Sullivan, Meadbh Doorley, Emma Corcoran, Grainne Dolan, Roisin Daly, Helen Dolan, Roisin Egan, Linda Sullivan, Sinead Hanamy, Mairead Daly, Katie O’Connell, Kate Kenny, Siobhan Flannery

Subs: Aoife McLoughlin, Aine Doorley, Ciara O’Connell, Ellie Hickey, Cait Hickey, Amy Sullivan, Heather Moran, Louise Flannery, Louise Mannion, Tara Butler, Sarah Moylan, Aoife O’Regan, Niamh Finneran, Eilish Naughton, Emma Nevin, Natasha Daly, Eva Flannery, Rachel Healy, Christina Maloney, Sarah McGarry, Karen Healy, Holly Boylan, Brionna O’Connor

Birr: Caoimhe Kinsella, Brooke Whelehan, Deirdre Cashen, Mairead Dooley, Gillian Irwin, Ciara Ryan, Denise Connor, Orlagh Kirwan, Sheila Sullivan, Dawn Whelehan, Sarah Harding, Arlene Watkins, Faye Mulrooney, Hannah Feenane, Mairead Jennings

Subs: Ellen Regan, Eimear Mooney, Rebecca Hoctor, Keira Dooley, Katie Dooley, Hannah Riley, Doireann Erritty, Aoibhe Kennedy, Rebecca Ryan, Ella Coughlan, Aoibhe Carey, Ella Feenane, Danielle Ryan, Niamh Ryan, Caoimhe Dunne, Alana Roddy

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