Congratulations to Towers girls Amy Conroy and Sinead Collins, who are now looking forward to an All Ireland Final, after playing for Dublin Under 16s Ladies Footballers in the All Ireland Under 16 semi-final defeat of Cavan last Saturday, 10th August. All at Round Tower congratulate you both on your success and wish you the very best ahead of the final. The match report from the Dublin Ladies GAA website, which is credited to Sinead Farrelly, is provided below, with both Towers ladies featured.
Dublin 6-13 Cavan 0-02
Dubs book place in final versus Cork
By Sinead Farrelly
In an early start for Cavan Rachel Talbot scored the opening point of the game. Moments later Dublin’s Amy Conroy scored their first of the game and levelled the score; this was closely followed by a wide from Aoife Kane.
A close game was played for the following minutes and the break came from Dublin’s Shauna O’Hara when she scored a point to put her side ahead, Dublin kept possession and put up a strong attack and their forward line kept pressing until Conroy scored another point.
As they kept the pressure on, Dublin pushed once more and O’Hara scored another point. Straight after, Sinéad Collins had a close shot but it was saved by the Cavan goalkeeper Amy Gaynor.
Cavan made a strong attack to score again but Hannah Duggan missed a close point attempt. Dublin didn’t let the ball settle and straight away Emma Colgan scored her first point of the game.
The opening free of the game went to Dublin and was taken by Colgan, but it dropped short and the Cavan backs drove the ball away. Dublin then had two more frees given to them but again no score came; However the full forward did make the breakthrough when she scored Dublin’s sixth point.
Colgan took another free for Dublin but she hit another wide with five minutes to go before half time. Dublin held onto possession and straight after she had a chance for a goal but was saved by Cavan’s Amy Gaynor.
Just before the half time break Cavan made the first substitution of the game by bringing off Caoimhe O’Reilly and introducing Ciara Fitzpatrick.
At half time the score stood at 6 points to 1 in favour of Dublin with Cavan having not scored since the opening minutes of the game.
Cavan started the second half strong with an immediate hold on possession and a good push from the forward lines, however some good blocks from the Dublin backs kept them from scoring. However shortly after, Dublin gave away a free and Rachel Talbot for Cavan scored their second point of the day.
Aoife Kane followed this up for Dublin and scored their opening point from the second half.
Cavan made their second substitution bringing on Geraldine Smith for Katie Fitzpatrick.
The Cavan backs came out much stronger at the start of the second half and kept the Dublin forwards at bay but Amy Conroy made the breakthrough and scored another point for Dublin bringing the gap in scores to 8 points. Shortly after she tried again but a great block from Cavan’s Sarah Nulty kept her out. However just moments later Aoife Maguire added another point to the scoreboard.
Conroy had a fantastic shot at a goal but Gaynor made another good block and kept her from scoring.
Dublin made their first substitution of the game by bringing on Mia Jennings in place
of Sinéad Collins just before Kane scored another point for the side.
A hop ball gave Cavan back possession and they got a free which Talbot took but went into the hands of the Dublin backs. Dublin made the most of the possession and Colgan scored the opening goal of the game and brought Dublin 11 points ahead.
Cavan made another substitution bringing on Niamh O’Shea and Ailisha McEnroe for Laura McKiernan and Hannah Duggan.
A great run from Jennings brought the ball the length of the pitch and into the hands of Colgan who scored her second goal of the game and this was directly followed by two goals from Conroy to further widen the gap and appeared to seal the fate of Cavan with just 10 minutes left in the game.
Dublin made another substitution replacing Aoife Kane with Hannah O’Neill.
Another point from Colgan brought the score to 4-11 to 2 points before another substitution from Dublin bringing on Louise Whelan for Niamh O’Neill and Zenousaka Murphy for Rebecca McDonnell.
A point attempt from Dublin was kept out by Gaynor but Hannah O’Neill managed to convert it into Dublin’s 5th goal. This was quickly followed by Hannah O’Neill scoring another point. Dublin kept up the pressure and Conroy added another goal to the score.
With just two minutes to go Cavan missed a close shot at a goal just before Colgan scored another point.
The final score was 6-13 to 2 points with Cavan again not scoring after just a single point in the opening minutes of the half as the Dublin Under 16s progressed to the All Ireland final.
Dublin:
Cialann Carey, Ellie Halloran, Ciara Crotty, Niamh Donnelly, Hannah Hegarty, Lauren Magee, Rebecca McDonnell, Holly Greer, Niamh O’Neill, Aoife Kane, Sinead Collins, Amy Conroy, Ellen Curran, Shauna O’Hara, Emma Colgan.
Subs: Mia Jennings for Collins, Lucia Hughes for O’Hara, Hannah O’Neill for Kane, Louise Whelan for O’Neill, Zenousaka Murphy for McDonnell
Scorers: Emma Colgan, 2-5(1f), Amy Conroy 2-3, Aoife Kane 0-03, Lucia Hughes 1-00, Hannah O’Neill 1-00, Shauna O’Hara 0-02.
Cavan:
Amy Gaynor, Ciara Brady, Caoimhe O’Reilly, Lucy McFarlane, Katie Fitzpatrick, Nessa Byrd, Roisin Galligan, Sarah Nulty, Laura McKiernan, Aoife Maguire, Catherine Dolan, Aisling O’Hara, Rachel Talbot, Hannah Duggan, Martha Coyle.
Subs: Ciara Fitzpatrick for O’Reilly, Geraldine Smith for Katie Fitzpatrick, Niamh O’Shea for Laura McKiernan, Ailsha McEnroe for Duggan.
Scorers: Rachel Talbot 0-2(1f)
Referee: Brian McCallion (Tyrone)
