Meath…2-06
Derry…1-09
Aoife Minogue cut a dejected figure as the full time whistle sounded in this thrilling All Ireland Intermediate Camogie Final at Croke Park. But she was being hard on herself by doing so. Her point attempt in the last minute – from a free on the sideline on the Hogan Stand side of the old field literally took the paint off the post for being only an inch the wrong side thereof.
However, not only had the Dunderry lady led the mission to pull Meath back from the abyss on this occasion, with no disrespect intended to anybody, she was also the main driving force behind getting Brendan Skehan’s team to GAA HQ on All Ireland Final day. Indeed demonstrating as such when eking out possession from the throw in, charging towards the Railway End goal and clipping over the game’s opening score.
When Ciara Foley then pounced on a loose clearance by Derry custodian Niamh Gribben and proceeded to bat to the net, somebody not completely attuned to goings on in the ladies small ball game might have assumed those in green and gold would be in for a handy day’s work. Though whilst in no way claiming to be an aficionado of the camogie scene, even from learning on the go, it quickly became apparent that competition in the intermediate grade in particular was feverish.
With most of the same sides having met in the Very Ireland National League earlier in the year, there has never been more than a poc of the ball between any of them. So there was an inevitability of a comeback by the Oak Leaf County was somewhat obvious. They came back alright, with interest.
Firstly thanks to a Mairead McNicholl goal that was every bit as fortuitous as was the Foley one at the other end and then a flurry of points courtesy of Aoife Shaw, Aine McAllister and Lauren McKenna. Align that to the fact that Meath never disturbed the umpires after O’Connell’s ‘major’ and it amounted to the white and red holding a deserved 1-08 to 1-01 lead with half an hour of their season remaining.
It wasn’t hard to envision Al Paccino’s speech in Any Given Sunday reverberating around the Meath dressing room at the break – “We’re in hell right now, people, believe me, and, we can stay here, get the sh** kicked out of us, or, we can fight our way back into the light. One inch at a time”. In a clear case of letting actions speaking louder than words, Abbye Donnelly began the tunnelling out process immediately after the restart when lofting over a mighty point.
What couldn’t have been foreseen, though, was the second half becoming a complete role reversal of the first. In that the Ulster side only registered a solitary score in Act II while, as is the Meath way, bit by bit, the girls in green began to whittle away at the deficit facing them as Minogue, Amy Gaffney, Foley and team captain Ellen Burke all found their range.
Good and all as the retrieval mission undoubtedly had been up to that point, it still took a gargantuan effort from Claire Coffey, Sophia Payne, Tracey King and – employing a little bit of parochial bias if I may – the brilliant Maeve Clince – to hold out an obviously potent opposing attack. That in itself was all well and good but there was a dollop of luck required at the other end too and when Minogue was thwarted by Gribben with a penalty attempt it appeared we weren’t going to get it.
Sometimes, though, you just get a feeling. Mention was made here in the lead up to the game that Croker had been kind to us of late and, regardless of what happened afterwards, when it mattered most the Gods again smiled upon our ambitions when substitute Aoibhin Lally was fastest to the rebound of the penalty save and teased the ball over the line for a crucial second goal.
Which at that stage left just a point between the sides. However, all the momentum in the world isn’t worth squat if you don’t do something with it.
Of course, what that requires is somebody – or bodies – having the knowhow and fortitude to pull off something big when it’s needed most. Cue accurate Aoife doing the needful after a free was, eh, shall we say, engineered as normal time evaporated.
Yes, there was that late chance, but at half time Meath would have taken a draw and ran. Aoife, or this Meath team, owe nobody anything. The glass is still half full. We go again.
MEATH – T. Murphy; R. O’Neill, C. Coffey, S. Payne; T. King, M. Clince, L. Devine; G. Coleman, A. Minogue (0-3); A. Gaffney (0-1), A. Donnelly (0-1), O. O’Halloran; C. Foley (1-1), E. O’Connell (1-0), E. Burke (0-1).
SUBS – A. Lally (1-0) for Coleman, N. Doyle for O’Halloran.
Referee: Brendan Nea (Westmeath)
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