Dec 16,2024
Mungret St Paul's (Limerick) 0-12 0-04 Na Dúnaibh (Donegal)
Grainne McKenna and Jayne Casey registered a combined nine points at Parnell Park as Mungret St Paul's secured the AIB All-Ireland Junior Club Championship crown with a convincing final victory over Donegal's Na Dúnaibh.
Supplementing the 0-05 haul amassed by her experienced attacking colleague McKenna, Casey bagged two points in each half as the women from the Treaty county impressively claimed a national success after holding their opponents scoreless in the second period.
Aiming to become the first Limerick side since Murroe/Boher in 2014 to win an All-Ireland junior club title, Mungret opened up an early gap in this contest thanks to a brace of points from corner-forward Casey.
Na Dúnaibh eventually got moving through Lauren McBride’s successful free on six minutes and while Mungret responded with a place-ball effort from McKenna (who has represented both Monaghan and Limerick at inter-county level), the Donegal side brought the gap back down to the bare minimum when midfielder Caoimhe McLaughlin split the posts on the run in fine style.
Yet Mungret attacked in waves throughout the opening period and created additional daylight between themselves and their Ulster counterparts with unanswered points from Niamh O’Keeffe, Clare O’Meara and McKenna. However, after her goalbound strike rattled the woodwork off an earlier attack, Lauren McBride found the target from frees in the 27th and 29th minutes to leave Na Dúnaibh just two points in arrears (0-6 to 0-4) at the interval.
Nevertheless, Mungret reinforced their authority on the resumption as a result of both Casey and McKenna increasing their personal tallies. The latter was having a major influence on the game and she subsequently fired over her second point from play as the final quarter approached.
Industrious wing-forward Aoife Morrissey also got in on the scoring act, before McKenna and Casey once again raised white flags to leave Mungret eight points in front with just 13 minutes remaining on the clock.
This put John Horgan’s side into a seemingly unassailable position and even though Na Dúnaibh – who had Shannon McGroddy in their starting line-up, ten years after she won an All-Ireland senior club title in the colours of Termon – were awarded a penalty four minutes from the end of time, Deirdre Doherty fired her spot-kick past the right post as Mungret eased to the title.
MUNGRET ST PAUL’S: C Bateman; C O’Neill, L Dunne, C Moloney; J Buckley, S Burke, M Clancy, A Ryan, C O’Meara (0-01), E O’Rourke, N O’Keeffe (0-01), A Morrissey (0-01), J Casey (0-04), G McKenna (0-05, 3f), N Crowley.
Subs: Y Culhane for O’Rourke, F Morrissey for Crowley (both 38), C Coughlan for O’Keeffe (45), J O’Malley for Buckley (52), M O’Malley for Casey (55).
NA DUNAIBH: C Shevlin; J Roberts, C Hay, M Doherty; A O’Connell, E Trearty, M Wilkin, J Trearty, C McLaughlin (0-01), A McLaughlin, MT Boyce, S McBride, D Doherty, S McGroddy, L McBride (0-03, 3f).
Subs: M O’Connell for Boyce (19), N Gallagher for Doherty (h-t), M Doherty for Wilkin (46), A Pasoma for C McLaughlin, D Shevlin for A McLaughlin (both 53).
Referee: Angela Gallagher (Meath).
