Fortune favours Rebels
Galway, the All-Ireland champions were favourites, before a waterlogged pitch forced the postponement of the original fixture at Dr Hyde Park a fortnight ago. The Connacht side had a short trip to make and a full squad to chose from, while Cork had to endure a long haul to Roscommon with five of their key players in action for club and county on the eve of the final.
Now the roles have been reversed. Galway will be missing two influential players as Niamh Fahy is on international soccer duty, while Geraldine Conneely is out due to a family engagement, and there’s also a Connacht championship meeting with Mayo next week to contend with.
Cork have a clean bill of health and captain Juliet Murphy believes the two week lay-off will benefit her side.
“Everyone is back for Saturday and the girls that had the matches have been well rested,” she said.
“I think the overnight trip to Roscommon did us good because we got to spend time together that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Galway are a great side, but so are we. We’ve come a long way in the past few years and it would be such a boost to win this.”
Cork have been impressing at underage level, collecting numerous U16 and minor titles and are desperate to replicate that at senior level.
That ambition may be realised in Limerick this afternoon.
: U Carroll; M Glynn, R Stephens, C Molloy; A McDonagh, M O’Connell, E Flaherty; A Clarke, A Daly; E Concannon, P Gleeson, R McPhilbin; P Flaherty, N Duggan, L Joyce.
: E Harte; N Keohane, A Walsh, R Buckley; B Corkery, C Walsh, S O’ Reilly; J Murphy, N Kelly, A Murphy, D O’Reilly, G O’Flynn; V Mulcahy, C Creedon, A O’Connor.
*The game is live on TG4.
