Muckalee edge out St Colmcille’s in Leinster Ladies JFC final

The club become the first Kilkenny side in 21 years to be crowned Leinster LGFA junior club championship winners.

Muckalee captain Clodagh Hanlon is presented with the cup by Leinster LGFA president Arthur Corrigan. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Leinster Ladies JFC final: Muckalee (Kilkenny) 1-5 St Colmcille’s (Meath) 1-4

Kate Purcell struck a vital 47th minute point at Coralstown/Kinnegad GAA on Saturday as Muckalee edged out St Colmcille’s to become the first Kilkenny side in 21 years to be crowned AIB Leinster LGFA junior club championship winners.

Fresh from an impressive semi-final win over Dublin’s Raheny last weekend, Muckalee enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and scoring chances during the early exchanges in the Westmeath venue. Yet the Noreside outfit were finding it difficult to find the target and their netminder Sarah Corcoran was forced into action to turn away a goal-bound palmed effort by Colmcille’s corner-forward Emma Brophy.

The Meath champions finally opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Brophy fired between the posts following a sharp turn, but Muckalee stormed into life just past the first-quarter mark.

At the end of a breakaway move on 18 minutes, Ellen Lawlor picked out her half-forward partner Purcell and she proceeded to rifle the ball to the bottom right-hand corner of the net.

Given how low-scoring the game was proving to be up to this point, there was a sense this could prove to be a crucial score. While Caoimhe McPeake registered a successful free for Colmcille’s, Katie Nolan responded immediately to provide Muckalee with a 1-1 to 0-2 interval lead.

Alannah Boland of St Colmcille's in action against Eadaoin Coady of Muckalee. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Pat McDowell’s charges stretched their cushion to three points on the resumption with another contribution from Nolan and while centre-forward Alannah Boland superbly split the uprights off a Colmcille’s free, Muckalee attacker Sian Bolger added her name to the scoresheet with a white flag effort.

Their Meath counterparts were looking to reignite their challenge as the play progressed and they managed to do just that when a speculative strike by Boland on 44 minutes floated into the net and brought them back on level terms.

This set the game up for a tense finale and the teams remained inseparable after Nolan and Boland traded points. However, Purcell squeezed Muckalee back in front with 13 minutes of normal time left to play and despite coming under intense pressure from Colmcille’s in the closing moments, they held firm to match Railyard’s provincial final triumph from 2004.

Scorers for Muckalee: K Purcell 1-1, K Nolan 0-3, S Bolger 0-1. 

Scorers for St Colmcille’s: A Boland 1-2 (0-1f), C McPeake (f), E Brophy 0-1 each.

MUCKALEE: S Corcoran; R Crowley, E Coonan, A Ring; E Coady, C Hanlon, J O’Keeffe; K Comerford, L Greene; H Moore, E Lawlor, K Purcell; S Bolger, E Keane, K Nolan. Sub: S Ruane for Moore (48).

ST COLMCILLE’S: S McPeake; A O’Toole, D Sweeney, G Rice; T Shortt, N Davitt, S McKenna; A O’Donnell, E Brodigan; T Gordon, A Boland, C McPeake; S Cleary, S Collins, E Brophy. Subs: S Murray for McKenna (38), O Deegan for Shortt (46), B Grant for Brophy (59).

Referee: Finbarr Shanahan (Dublin).