Flawless Aherne wins glamour duel
On a similar theme, GAA Congress has passed the adoption of the countdown clock in football and hurling twice and yet it hasn’t emerged. Don’t you love democracy? It was rejected by Central Council the last time because of a whole host of concerns.
John Fogarty clinically blitzed each of those in these pages last Tuesday.
So I’ll just add that it clearly would be a help to referees to leave somebody else to attend to time-keeping, while reiterating that a clock wasn’t needed for Dublin to expertly see out time in the men’s final.
Rather than devote number three (below) to something else the girls do better, we’ll lump in the sin-bin here too. It’s better than the black card in that it is much more of a punishment. Mind you, it would still come down to the application at the right time.
Followers of the big ball code in Tipperary have had plenty to shout about in recent years and there was more as Shaun Ronayne’s intermediate side got their hands on the Mary Quinn Cup. TG4 player of the match Aisling McCarthy was the game’s major scoring contributor with 1-4, though Gillian O’Brien, with four from play, must have gone close.
This was McCarthy’s second ultimate success at HQ, having captained Cahir to win the intermediate All-Ireland club camogie title last year.
Aisling Moloney and Róisín Howard were alongside her that day and it was good to see Howard and Orla O’Dwyer keeping the dual flag flying, as members of the Tipp camogie team that reached the All-Ireland quarter-final earlier this year.
The Premier influence didn’t end there as Derry captain Cáit Glass (née McCarra) is a Tipp native who lined out with distinction in the blue and gold before moving north — via a stint in London, whose colours she also wore — and getting married. Glass gets a second bite of the cherry after her side drew with Fermanagh in the junior decider.
It didn’t pan out as Cora Staunton or her many admirers would have hoped. She was very conspicuous early on but shot seven wides in the first half.
In stark contrast, Sinéad Aherne didn’t have one wayward shot, although her first-half penalty, saved by sub goalie Aisling Tarpey, lacked conviction.
Dublin’s running game drew numerous fouls from Mayo’s stretched defence and Aherne punished the transgressions unerringly.
Not having two or three defenders closing her down at all times helped too and this was because Dublin had so many attacking threats to keep Mayo minds occupied, whereas only Grace Kelly offered a threat alongside Staunton.
Mick Bohan knows what he’s doing. He has won All-Irelands with Dublin at senior, U21, and minor level as a coach, and with DCU in the Sigerson Cup.
He was also part of Colm Collins’ ticket as Clare won Division 3 of the National Football League in 2016 and reached the last eight of the All-Ireland championship.
He returned as manager of the Jackies this year, having engineered Dublin’s first Leinster title success title in 2002 and then agonisingly to Mayo thanks to a last-ditch Diane O’Hora goal in the following year’s All-Ireland.
His influence was very evident as the near-misses of this decade were finally consigned to history with aplomb.
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