The priority for the season remains qualification to the quarter-finals of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship from Group 2 but manager Bill McCormack believes that there is scope to aim higher within the Dublin camp, even though they will be planning without midfield dynamo Gaby Couch for the business end of proceedings.
The Blues are on the brink of a spot in the last six after defeating the team they stunned with an injury-time goal in the Division 1B final, Wexford, by 4-13 to 1-10 at Parnell Park.
With Claire Gannon excelling, skipper and former All-Star full-forward Aisling Maher continuing to flourish in the new quarterback role she has been designated with this year and goals from Elyse Jamieson, Emma Flanagan, Grace O’Shea and Aisling Gannon, the hosts prevailed in what was a key tie in terms of progression to the last six.
Dublin responded well to the concession of a second-minute goal by Chloe Foxe and had a bit of fortune when Anais Curran crashed her 21st-minute penalty off the crossbar, after the whistle had been blown just before Joanne Dillon had finished to the corner of the net.
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No one could argue with the merit of the Metropolitans’ triumph, however and McCormack was understandably satisfied, particularly given the absence of star forward, Aisling O’Neill through injury.
“The performances have improved as the year has gone on, which is encouraging,” said McCormack.
“We’ve had a couple of injuries, Ais O’Neill and Laura Sharkey, and it was great to see Laura back on the pitch for the first time after a bad hamstring injury. It’s good to put a performance like that together and we knew that would be required to beat a team like Wexford.
“It’s a challenge we put to the girls. We said, ‘Ais [O’Neill] has done things for us in the past, got us out of holes. Who’s going to step up?’ There was a good spread of scores. Really effective forward line. They were potent and any time the ball went in there we looked like we were dangerous. Goals aren’t something we’ve been managing to get a whole pile of, so to put four on the board was brilliant.
“We pinpointed this game and the Clare game at the start of the year as the two must-win games . . . To produce the performance against Wexford, that’s what was gonna be needed. They’re more than a fly in the ointment for us. I don’t think there’s ever been more than a puck of the ball between us over the last two or three years so to get a win of that nature was really encouraging for us.
“We said it last year and even after the League. Look at what Waterford did. Why not us? There’s girls there have won Ashbourne Cups. There’s girls there that have won Leinster club championships and contested All-Ireland club championship finals.
“So why not? We have the calibre of player there. We just needed to all knit together and at the moment, it’s a camp moving in the right direction.”
All-Ireland champions Cork have booked their qualification from the same group after a third straight comfortable victory, this time by 2-19 to 1-4 over Clare at Cusack Park.
Amy O’Connor hit 1-5 and Orlaith Cahalane 1-4 as the Leesiders cantered through and for manager Ger Manley, it was a case of job done for the table toppers. Getting Laura Treacy on after a lengthy absence with a hamstring injury, was the cherry on top.
“It was about qualifying,” said Manley. “Once we won today we were qualified for the quarter-final stage with three matches won and that was the target. We started very well I thought. We lost the toss and played with the wind.
“The one thing we will have to improve against the better teams is to take our chances. We created a lot of goal chances and just didn’t take them. Clare worked hard all through the game but we were well on top and the second half was a non-event really.”
In Group 1, League champions, Tipperary have also booked a return to the last six at least when maintaining their flawless record with a 1-17 to 0-6 defeat of Antrim at The Ragg.
Nine points from Cáit Devane in her first start of the year and a goal and four from Grace O’Brien were the highlights for Denis Kelly’s charges and O’Brien made no bones about the desire to earn the automatic semi-final spot as group winners.
“We want to go out and win every game and if you come top of the group, you avoid a quarter-final. Last year, the quarter-finals took a lot out of us. And you’re looking at getting a really good quality team in one of those quarter-finals and then having to go play a semi.
“So please God we’ll go to Limerick and get a win and then hopefully against Kilkenny. It would be a big boost to ourselves to get that time off between the group stages and a semi-final so we’ll be going hell for leather for that.”
RESULTS
Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Group 1
Tipperary 1-17 Antrim 0-6
Derry 0-19 Limerick 0-13
Kilkenny 1-13 Waterford 1-13
Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Group 2
Clare 1-4 Cork 2-19
Dublin 4-13 Wexford 1-10
Galway 6-27 Down 0-4
