Ladies football: Dublin down despite win over Cork

Cork's Shauna Kelly with Michelle Davoren and Carla Rowe of Dublin. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Dublin 2-8 Cork 1-6 

Despite goals from Michelle Davoren and Annabelle Timothy guiding them towards a five-point triumph over upcoming finalists Cork at Parnell Park, Dublin have suffered relegation from Division 1 of the Lidl National Football League.

Carla Rowe, Dublin’s All-Ireland winning captain in both 2023 and 2025, edged them into an early lead with a fine point off the outside of her right boot. The in-form Katie Quirke responded at the opposite end for Cork with a successful free, before the Jackies bagged the opening goal of the game as Davoren got the better of Leeside netminder Caoimhe Redmond with a looping shot on six minutes.

The hosts were searching for just their second victory of this year’s NFL top-tier and raised another green flag when Timothy cut inside from the left in the 12th minute to fire a clinical shot to the back of the Cork net.

While the visitors eventually added to their tally with a well-worked point from half-back Sadbh McGoldrick just shy of the first-quarter mark, Dublin created significant daylight with unanswered scores courtesy of Timothy, Jodi Egan, Davoren and Rowe. Although Cork subsequently interrupted this scoring sequence with a brace of Quirke points, Dublin nevertheless brought a convincing 2-5 to 0-4 buffer into the interval.

Despite there being no score in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, Dublin defender Niamh Crowley and Cork substitute Aimee Corcoran both went close to rattling the respective opposition nets.

Midfielder Abbie O’Mahony and skipper Emma Cleary were also denied a three-pointer by Jackies custodian Abby Shiels as the Leesiders sought to step things up ahead of their Lidl NFL Division One decider against Galway on Saturday week.

Cork were persistent in their attacking play, however, and the Munster outfit finally grabbed the maiden score of the second period when Katie Quirke coolly slotted a penalty past Shiels on the stroke of 50 minutes.

Dublin settled back into the contest with additional points from Rowe (free) and Egan, but even though Annabelle Timothy put the seal on their win after Abigail Ring and Quirke had registered scores for Cork, results elsewhere on Sunday mean the Metropolitans will be playing in Division 2 of the NFL in 2027.

Scorers – Dublin: A Timothy 1-2, M Davoren 1-1, C Rowe 0-3 (1f), J Egan 0-2.

Cork: K Quirke 1-4 (1-0 pen, 0-3f), S McGoldrick, A Ring 0-1 each.

Dublin: A Shiels; N Crowley, H Leahy, K Donaghy; E Gribben, H McGinnis, N Donlon; R Hartnett, O Nolan; L Grendon, C Rowe, A Timothy; J Egan, N Hetherton, M Davoren. Subs: S McIntyre for Gribben (36), C Coffey for Donaghy (49), A Nyhan for Nolan (55), R McDonnell for Davoren (62).

Cork: C Richmond; M Duggan, D Kiniry, S Kelly; C Hughes, S McGoldrick, R Corkery; A Healy, A O’Mahony; R Leahy, K Redmond, E Cleary; A O’Sullivan, K Quirke, L Hallihan. Subs: A Corcoran for Hughes, M O’Callaghan for Redmond (both h-t), G Murphy for Leahy, S Callanan for Kelly (both 49), A Ring for Hallihan (52), E Hurley for Cleary (55).

Referee: Maggie Farrelly (Cavan).