Sunday, June 29^th, Killavullen

Division 1B League Final

Bride Rovers 7-12             Boherbue 2-12

 

On Sunday June 29^th Bride Rovers Ladies football senior team created history for the club by winning the first senior club title in the form of the Division 1 B County League.  Bride Rovers beat Beara, Gabriel Rangers, Rosscarberry, and St. Mary’s in the round robin series and only dropped 2 points to Boherbue which made them finish top of the league table.  Boherbue were to be the final opposition again and a chance for the East Cork side to seek revenge and that they did in emphatic style in Killavullen winning on a margin of 7.12 to 2.12.  While the scoreline doesn’t reflect how intense the game was and at any one stage it only ever felt like a score or two was between the two sides.  Bride Rovers started the brighter with a top drawer goal from Katie Kelleher settling the nerves for the team and who notched up a further 2 points in the game before being heavily tackled by the Boherbue rearguard.  Grace Kearney and Grace Culloty worked well together to trouble the defence throughout showing their footballing expertise.  Jennifer Barry and Sinead Walsh created many scoring chances not only for themselves but selflessly for their teammates scoring 0-2 and 3-2 respectively.  It wasn’t all Bride Rovers way either and the backline had a busy hour with very solid displays from Aine Cashman and Emma O’ Keeffe.  Arlene O’ Callaghan was her usual tenacious self reading the game well at every opportunity.  Aoife O Riordan and Rachel O’ Callaghan showed steely determination in their first senior football season.  Jennifer Cahill saw every blade of grass in the Killavullen pitch as she powered through to the final minute in her midfield role.  Bridget Forde played a true captains role in a leadership capacity playing several different positions across the hour.  The player of the match was unanimous to players, management and supporters alike as without her top quality saves throughout the game there is no doubt the result could have been a lot different.  Some of the point blank saves made by Caitriona Vaughan wouldn’t be equalled in Brazil 2014. Niamh Barry and Shelly McAteer used their experience and never say die attitude on many occasions to counteract the threat of the Boherbue forwards.  Eleanor Ahern was introduced in the second half on a comeback from her recent ankle injury and saw a lot of ball being involved in many attacks.  Trish O’ Sullivan came on in the backline and used her huge fitness levels and football presence to seal up the defence.  Katie Connor’s introduction allowed for fresh legs to make dynamic runs in the half forward line and be involved in link up play.  The Boherbue side to their credit never gave up and instead ran at our defence on every occasion but Karen Sheehan came on to do a sweeper’s role ensuring the rear guard was in full control.  Imelda Dorgan was introduced at corner forward and covered great ground as she created plenty options and space up front for a few final attacks.  This was a great panel performance and while only 20 could take to the field on the day we had a panel of 30 who were involved at various stages of the league and in training sessions in the lead up to the final.  There were great scenes at the end of the match when the faithful supporters cheered and photographed as Bridget Forde was presented with the cup and the team celebrated.  There is a unique blend of youth and experience on this team. Those in the mature stage of their football career can be very proud of the fact that they now have medals won from Junior C to Senior level with the club.  On the other hand we have those starting out their senior football career with three medals so far in 2014 with the U21B, Junior League and Senior medals already accounted for.  This all bodes well for a bright club future in the top tier of Ladies Football in the County as these girls will now compete in the Division 1A league in 2015.  There are many different people that have played their part in getting the club to this stage and all can take a bow at this time.  There are not many clubs in any code, male or female that can boast going up 4 grades in just 7 years and it is definitely something for players, management, club officials and supporters to be very proud of.  The current management team of Nora Aherne, Irene Hogan, Betty Cahill and Sinead O’ Driscoll work tirelessly on and off the field to ensure the ultimate preparation is evident for all games and especially for Sunday’s final.  All involved now look forward in anticipation to the Championship campaign to kick off on 22^nd of July with Boherbue again being the opposition.  The Senior teams main sponsors are Spar Rathcormac and we thank them for their continued support.

Photo Bridget Forde accepting the Division 1B trophy from Jerome Casey

Panel and Scorers: Caitriona Vaughan, Arlene O’ Callaghan Walsh, Aine Cashman, Aoife Riordan, Emma O’ Keffee, Niamh Barry, Jennifer Cahill (0-2), Rachel O’ Callaghan, Katie Kelleher (1-2), Jennifer Barry (0-2), Sinead Walsh (3-2), Bridget Forde, Grace Kearney (2-3), Grace Culloty (1-0), Madison Parle, Eleanor Ahern (0-1), Trish O’ Sullivan, Karen Sheehan, Imelda Dorgan, Meg Kelleher, Elaine Culloty, Evelyn Collins, Laura Pratt, Erin O’ Keeffe, Mary Hazelwood, Claire Murphy, Caroline Broderick, Maria Barry.

 The East Cork Junior B semi-final versus Glanmire was played in Pynes on Wednesday, July 2^nd, 7:30pm. Full report will be in next week’s notes.

 

 Glanworth were our visitors to Pynes on Tuesday, July 1^st for a friendly match. Details in next week’s report.

 

 Our final U12 league fixture against Glanmire was played on Friday, June 27^th at Buck Learys Cross and we enjoyed a great win to close out a very good campaign. Activities will resume in a few weeks after a short break.

We travelled to Buck Learys Cross last friday night to play Glanmire in our last league game of the season. A big effort was needed from the girls and they played really well from the start. As we had only 13 players on the night we had to play some girls out of their normal postitions. But that didn't seem to matter as they all put in a fantastic effort winning well. A special word of thanks to Pauline and Trish throughout this league campaign for all their help.

 

 Ella Quinlan

Caoimhe Kielty

Rebecca Walsh (c)

Chloe Murphy

Caoimhe Hazelwood

Rebecca Hill

Ciara o'Flynn

Shauna Hayes

Alice Murray

Caoimhe Barry

Caoimhe o'Sullivan

Abbey Keating

Niamh o'Sullivan

 

 Congratulations to Katie Quirke and Fiona Barry who uphold the proud club tradition of supplying players to Cork primary game panels. Fiona lined out for the camogie team at Semple Stadium, Thurles a couple of weeks ago and Katie will line out for Cork’s primary footballers at half-time in the Munster SFC final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh next Sunday, July 6th.

 

 Valley Rovers conceded our final U16 camogie league fixture which was scheduled for Wednesday, June 25^th .

 

 Imokilly league fixtures are scheduled for July 10^th (Youghal), July 24^th (Aghada) and a third fixture later in August.

 

 Our final league game against Killeagh was cancelled. All players have U13 and/or U15 activity to look forward to now though.

 

 We suffered a 2 point defeat in our opening U13 match at Aghada on Monday June 23^rdbut bounced back to beat visitors Fr O’Neills in Rathcormac on Saturday, June 28^th. The next fixture will be in Cobh on Friday, July 4^th with another match to be fixed for Saturday, July 5^th.

 

We host an U10 camogie blitz at our main pitch on Saturday, July 5^th. Activity starts at 10am and hopefully the weather will be good.

 

 Brian Murphy will host a camogie workshop at the club on Thursday, July 3^rd for U14,U16 and minor players. No matches will be scheduled for that day to allow the maximum number of players to attend.

 

Don’t forget you can stay in touch day to day with all the latest news on Twitter, @roversgaa,  and on Facebook.