Powerful finish puts Cork in first final

Cork 0-13 Mayo 1-9

Cork captain Juliette Murphy, who kicked the winning point 29 seconds before the hooter, thought the match was lost before Mayo had two players sidelined in the closing minutes. Coach Eamonn Ryan conceded that his team had “used up a lot of luck.”

The referee’s decision to send off substitute Ciara McDermott two minutes after she came on and wing-forward Marcella Heffernan with two-and-a-half minutes remaining undoubtedly gave Cork the opportunity to take control at the most critical stage of the game. Mayo selector Noel Kearney’s description of their defeat as “cruel” aptly summed up the mood of management and tearful players at the game’s conclusion. He wasn’t happy about the circumstances of the defeat.

“For the whole match, the referee was just ‘ticking’ people, then we got two straight yellows. After training for ten months it was an awful way to go out, but you could take nothing away from Cork. They fought to the bitter end. A draw would have been a fair result. With two minutes to go we thought we had it.”

The game’s only goal, from corner forward Cora Staunton in the 19th minute, sustained Mayo’s more consistent performance throughout. And it was what promised to end Cork’s dream of a winning debut in the semi-final until their character shone through in the last ten minutes. They were greatly assisted by the contribution of substitute Mary O’Connor and even more so Valerie Mulcahy, prevented from starting by an ankle injury, scored three priceless points following her late introduction. After a promising start, Cork lost ground steadily as Mayo played the more direct football. Christina Heffernan was effective at centre-forward and Staunton’s goal had them six points ahead. But with Amanda Murphy, Caoimhe Creedon and Nollaig Cleary prominent in attack and Juliette Murphy very involved at midfield, Cork rallied to halve the deficit by the break, 1-5 to 0-5.

Within four minutes of the resumption, the margin was down to a single score. However, Mayo showed the value of their experience by taking over in defence, where Helena Lohan did a lot of good work at full-back in the face of a strong challenge from Creedon. Two vital scores from Staunton kept the former champions in front in spite of increased Cork pressure, with wing-back Briege Corkery among their more influential players after full-back Angela Walsh who had been outstanding in the first half.

Still, the game looked like going Mayo’s way until first McDermott was sent off, following which Valerie Mulcahy boosted Cork with her second score. Then Heffernan was ordered off, and after Mulcahy scored again, a Caoimhe Creedon point had Cork level with the clock indicating 80 seconds left to play. Incredibly, one last attack yielded the winner for Juliette Murphy and Mayo didn’t have the time to recover.

“I think we were very lucky. The only thing, we played badly and still won,’’ said Eamonn Ryan. “I thought Mayo were much more physical and stopped us from playing. With ten minutes to go we were very worried.”

For overjoyed match-winner Murphy, the team’s character was key to their success.

“Once again, we pulled together and stayed together and in the last five minutes we showed what we are made of,” she said. “In the first half we were too slow in our build-up and the fact of Mayo playing an extra player in defence worked against us. Eamonn’s message at half-time was to leave the ball into the forwards and leave them do damage. Mayo being reduced to 13 opened them up. It didn’t allow them to make the contact to break us down.”

Scorers: Cork: J. Murphy (0-1 free), V. Mulcahy (0-2 frees) and A. Murphy 0-3 each; C. Creedon 0-2; A. O’Connor and S. O’Reilly 0-1 each. Mayo: C. Staunton 1-3; E. Mullen and C. Heffernan 0-2 each; S. Tyrrell and K. Colleran 0-1 each.

CORK: E. Harte; B. Stack, A. Walsh, R. Buckley; B. Corkery, C. Walsh, S. O’Reilly; J. Murphy (capt.), N. Kelly; A. Murphy, R. Curtin, D. O’Reilly; N. Cleary, C. Creedon, G. O’Flynn.

Subs: M. O’Connor for O’Flynn (second half); V. Mulcahy for Curtin (53rd); A. O’Connor for O’Reilly (56th).

MAYO: L. Connolly; N. O’Shea, H. Lohan, S. McGing; H. Jordan, C. O’Hara, M.T. Garvey; C. Egan (capt.), S. Tyrrell; M. Heffernan, C. Heffernan, K. Colleran; M. Carter, E. Mullen, C. Staunton.

Subs: F. McHale for Colleran (52nd minute); C. McDermott for Egan (56th).

Referee: J. Murray (Dublin).