Munster Ladies Premier Junior semi-final: Strong first half sees Ballymac storm to victory against Carrigaline

Ballymacelligott laid the foundations for this Munster Ladies Premier Junior Championship semi–final victory with a powerful opening half against Carrigaline at Cordal on Saturday afternoon. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Ballymacelligott 2-14 Carrigaline 2-6

Ballymacelligott laid the foundations for this Munster Ladies Premier Junior Championship semi–final victory with a powerful opening half against Carrigaline at Cordal on Saturday afternoon.

The venue is a story in itself because it was a very late call to transfer the game away from a Ballymac pitch that was deemed unplayable at one end.

The game was moved to Cordal, about twelve miles to the East and the throw-in was put back an hour, which was not ideal for the Cork Champions. But the game was fortunate to be played at all given the Orange warning for rain and the tail end of Storm Boelo still blowing hard.

Ballymac had lost two finals before beating Fossa in this year’s Kerry final and with that monkey off their backs, they played with much more purpose and belief in this contest.

Ballymac played with the gale in the opening half and with Jamie Lee O’Connor dominant at midfield and Kerry senior Roisin Rahilly tormenting the Carrigaline defence with her pace, they built up a substantial lead by half time. 2-10 to 1-5.

Cora Savage led the attack superbly and kicked 0-6 that included four frees as Carrigaline just could not get their kick-outs away and were forced to foul. Rahilly added two points along with Rachel Creedon but it was the two goals Ballymac scored that appeared to deflate the visitors.

This was because both goals were scored inside the opening six minutes. The first came after a superb Roisin Rahilly run and pass to Sarah Scanlon, who buried the ball to the Carrigaline net.

Then in the sixth minute Cora Savage intercepted a poor kick out, found the inrushing Rahilly, who was taken down for a penalty. Sarah Scanlon remained ice cool as she sent keeper Eimear O’Sullivan the wrong way and suddenly after another Carrigaline turnover, Cora Savage had Ballymac 2-3 to 0-0 in front by the tenth minute.

Rachel O Regan from a free and Holly Jackson from play got Carrigaline up and running but they just found carrying the ball against the wind difficult and they were constantly being turned over by a Ballymac defence led by Una Kerins Morrissey at fullback.

However in the 24th minute, Ballymac did not clear their lines and Holly Fitzgerald found the net before points from Kate Cooney and O’Regan gave them something to work with in the second half.

It developed into a war of attrition in the second half but 18-year-old Jamie Lee O’Connor was superb in midfield while the switching of Roisin Rahilly to defence to shadow the dangerous Rachel O’Regan proved to be a masterstroke.

Two Cora Savage points extended Ballymac’s lead as Carrigaline had Sky Fielding sin-binned in the 36th minute. Five minutes later Ballymac’s Niamh Rahilly suffered the same fate and Carrigaline scored a goal from Emma Cooney before a free from Bekan Grant reduced the gap to six points.

But Rachel O’Riordan soon became the third player to be yellow carded and that was that. Ruth Creedon and fittingly Jamie Lee O’Connor put the icing on the Ballymac cake with two late points.

Ballymac will now face Tipperary champions Arravale Rovers in the Munster final on Saturday week after they defeated Fergus Rovers 1-13 to 2-7 in the other semi-final.

Scorers for Ballymac: C Savage (0-8, 5fs), S Scanlon (2-0), R Creedon (0-3), R Rahilly (0-2), J Lee O’Connor (0-1).

Scorers for Carrigaline: E Cooney (1-1), H Fitzgerald (1-0), R O’Regan (0-2fs), K Cooney, H Jackson and B Grant (f) (0-1 each).

BALLYMACELLIGOTT: R White; N Rahilly, U Kerins Morrissey, G Galvin; K Enright, E Creedon, A Collins; A O’Connell, J Lee O’Connor; R Griffin, C Savage, R Rahilly; R Creedon, S Scanlon, T Quinn.

Subs: K Collins for T Quinn (h/t), C Carroll for G Galvin (h/t), T Donnelly for R Griffin (46).

CARRIGALINE: E O’Sullivan; B Haly, A Hourihane, S Fielding; A Griffin, E O’Herlihy, E Motherway; K Cooney, E Deasy; R O’Regan, E Cooney, Z O’Herlihy; A O’Neill, H Jackson, H Fitzgerald.

Subs: B Grant for A O’Neill (h/t), F Ni Bhradaigh for E Motherway (40), F O’Connell for E Deacy (58), A McIver for H Fitzgerald (59).

Referee: B Cummins (Tipperary).