All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Final: St Finbarr’s (Cork) 0-15 Athenry (Galway) 1-12
Kayla Madden fired over an equalising score with the last play of the game as Athenry staged a sensational Croke Park comeback to send the All-Ireland senior club camogie final to a replay.
Athenry trailed St Finbarr’s by six points with four minutes of normal time remaining, but the Galway champions – propelled by the towering Therese Donohue – scored 1-3 without response to earn a replay on the weekend of January 3rd-4th.
St Finbarr’s, playing in their maiden All-Ireland final, had led the contest from the 17th to the 65th minute, when Madden received the ball on the edge of the D and showed ice-like composure to flick over the equaliser.
Four minutes of added time had been announced and when the ball sailed over the crossbar at the Canal End, the clock showed 64 minutes 18 seconds. The final whistle sounded on the resulting puckout. Ecstasy and agony, but no winner.
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“We’re delighted to still be in the All-Ireland final,” said Athenry manager Joe Rabbitte afterwards.
St Finbarr’s were the better team for much of the game but this is now the third time in their last four outings that they have ended regulation time deadlocked with their opponents.
Athenry’s only previous All-Ireland title in this competition was mined in 1977, and it appeared they were on course to lose an eighth decider before their late show at Croke Park on Sunday.
It wouldn’t have been possible without Donohue – the 44-year-old mother of three was the standout player, and it was her relentless determination that led to the crucial 56th-minute goal that changed the trajectory of the game.
She drilled a hole through a forest of blue and gold jerseys and when she finally got off a shot it dropped just short, hitting the crossbar but bouncing back out in front of the goal where Anna Jordan was waiting to smack home, 0-15 to 1-9.
Sabina Rabbitte, whose dad Joe is the Athenry manager, arrowed over a difficult free from under the Cusack Stand moments later to reduced the gap to just two points. From nowhere, St Finbarr’s were suddenly on the back foot.
When Eimear Hurley – who played in goal for Dublin this year – made it 0-15 to 0-9 to the Cork champions in the 55th minute, it would have taken a brave punter to wager on Athenry getting anything out of the game.
But that was to be their last score of the evening and following Athenry’s quick-fire 1-1, all the momentum was with the Galway side. Kerri O’Driscoll had a wide soon after Rabbitte’s free while St Finbarr’s goalkeeper Ciara Hurley had to produce a strong save from a goal-bound shot from Jessica Gill in the first minute of injury-time.
Athenry looked like scoring with every attack, it was just a matter of whether they would have enough time to claw back the two-point deficit.
Rabbitte showed her steel with a nicely executed 45 in the 63rd minute to reduce the gap to the minimum – setting up a high-drama finale.
The ‘barrs, to their credit, defended ferociously in the closing stages but when Eva McGlynn flicked the ball out to Madden, the Athenry number 10 had enough space to split the posts. Draw.
“My immediate reaction is that we have another chance, we have a game on the 3rd or 4th of January and we’ll have another rattle off it then,” said St Finbarr’s manager Brian O’Sullivan.
St Finbarr’s led 0-8 to 0-6 at half-time and Sorcha McCartan put in a storming third quarter to help extend their advantage to four within nine minutes of the restart in slotting over three points.
Donohue popped over a point to make it 0-12 to 0-9, but when St Finbarr’s replied with three on the bounce – from Kate Wall, McCartan and Hurley – it felt as though the Cork side had broken Athenry’s resolve. How wrong we were.
If Donohue was the catalyst for Athenry’s comeback and Madden was the hero with the equaliser, special mention must also go to centre back Olwen Rabbitte who played despite suffering a cruciate injury in the Galway county final.
There are big decisions for both camps to make now over the weeks ahead. Wall is reportedly due to fly to Australia before the end of the month while Rabbitte has a knee operation booked for the week after the replay.
Decisions, decisions. But if nothing else, at least the dream of winning an All-Ireland club title remains alive in both parishes for a few weeks more.
ST FINBARR’S: C Hurley; S Punch, A Egan, G Cahalane; A O’Neill, M Cahalane, S Daly; C Golden (0-1), A Shannon; N Olden (0-3), K Wall (0-1), K McCarthy (0-1); H O’Leary, O Cahalane (0-2), S McCartan (0-6; 4f, 1′45).
Subs: L O’Donovan for Daly (38 mins); E Hurley (0-1) for O’Leary (45); E Wiggington Barrett for Olden (60).
ATHENRY: L Freeney; D Higgins, K Screene, T Kilkenny; L Casserly, O Rabbitte, S Feeney; K Madden (0-2), N Feeney; J Gill, T Donohue (0-3), E Keane; C Burke, S Rabbitte (0-4; 2f, 1′45), K O’Driscoll (0-2).
Subs: E McGlynn (0-1) for N Feeney (ht); A Jordan (1-0) for Burke (44 mins); M Noone for Keane (52).
Referee: Ray Kelly (Kildare).
