Double delight for champions Claremorris
Claremorris captain Amy Cummins receives the Mayo LGFA Minor 'A' trophy from county minor team manager Brian McLoughlin. Picture courtesy of Mayo LGFA
They have won it all: U14, U16 and now, back to back Minor ‘A’ titles. This golden generation of Claremorris ladies footballers are also the backbone of the new vibrant Claremorris senior team, who came so close to winning last year’s All-Ireland junior title.
They reaffirmed their excellence on Sunday last, with brilliant individual performances up front by Bree Hession and Aisleigh Sammon, who combined for 10 points, and an all-round great team display seeing them to a three points win over local rivals Balla.
The Cummins twins, Aisling and Amy, were immense in both defence and attack, while Emma Higgins, Sarah Dee and Sienna Kelly also helped to limit an exciting Balla forward line to scraps when the game was in the balance.
Isobel Phillips was sensational, the midfielder doing trojan work throughout, and she was the key difference maker when the sides were level with 15 minutes to go.
It was a cracking game of football played in sunny conditions at the Centre of Excellence, with both teams playing lovely brands of football.
Balla led at half-time and were marginally the better side for periods of the game, as Claremorris were certainly made to dig deep for the title, with captain Riona Jordan, Caoilinn Gilmartin, Isabelle Basquille and Sophie O’Donnell outstanding throughout.
After a nine goal blitz of Wesport in last year’s final, Claremorris returned 14 of the side who either started or came on in that contest, and found the going hard early on.
Eamonn McGreal had his Balla side well set-up and they raced into an early lead after lovely scores from Muireann Nolan and Sophie O’Donnell, two. Claremorris were playing with the breeze but were wasteful at times in attack, yet still led 0-5 to 0-4 after efforts from Bree Hession and Mary Ann Warde, two apiece, and Aisleigh Sammon.
Balla were playing vibrant football on the break and had the game’s only goal as early as the 12th minute when Muireann Nolan’s effort looped over goalkeeper Alyssa Murphy. Balla were beginning to dominate and nearly had another when Riona Jordan was bearing down on goal, only for her strike to whistle over the crossbar instead of into the net.
It was an entertaining last 10 minutes of the first-half where both sides exchanged scores, with Nolan and Amy Cunningham shooting the lights out, before the hotly tipped Claremorris seized back control of the game. After two long-range scores from Hession, a great score from Phillips, and a contentious effort from Sammon that crept inside the post, Balla had a half-time lead of 1-7 to 0-9.
A cagey start to the second-half saw Balla finally open the scoring after 10 minutes through Cunningham, assisted by the breeze, and the game soon sparked into life.
Claremorris levelled it up through lovely efforts from Ward and Hession before they took the lead for the first time since the opening ten minutes, with captain Amy Cummins inspirationally rounding off a superb team move.
Claremorris nudged further ahead with Bree Hession scoring, but Balla were soon only one behind after a brilliant Riona Jordan solo score.
With 10 minutes to go, Claremorris began to push high up the field on Balla’s kickouts and simply dismantled their opponents. Isobel Phillips was outstanding in her ball carrying and work-rate, and Claremorris came at Balla in waves, with Hession restoring the two points lead.
Balla were struggling to break out and Sammon put Claremorris in a commanding position in the final minutes with two sublime scores to leave them four up. Balla reduced the gap to three after a Jordan free, but the goal they needed never came.
It was a superb effort from the vanquished who fielded numerous girls who are still at the U16 grade. But the day belonged to the Claremorris players who have won every underage championship in their young careers.
Scorers – Claremorris: Bree Hession 0-6 (2f), Aisleigh Sammon 0-4, Mary Ann Ward 0-3, Isobel Phillips and Amy Cummins 0-1 each.
Balla: Muireann Nolan 1-2f, Riona Jordan 0-3, Sophie O’Donnell and Amy Cunningham 0-2 each.
Claremorris: Alyssa Murphy; Sienna Kelly, Sienna Morley, Sarah Dee; Aisling Cummins, Emma Higgins, Amy Cummins; Isobel Phillips, Siomha McNulty; Aisleigh Sammon, Bree Hession, Eabha Finnerty; Cara Higgins, Mary Ann Ward, Zainab Naeem. Sub: Roisin Horkan (for C Higgins 40).
Balla: Meabh Golding; Isabelle Basquille, Cara O’Connor, Eva Mitchell; Melissa Heneghan, Sarah Heaney, Lauren Kavanagh; Aoibhe Walsh, Ellie Dunleavy; Caoilinn Gilmartin, Riona Jordan, Sophie O’Donnell; Amy Cunningham, Nicole Ryan, Muireann Nolan. Subs: Amy Sinclair (for Ryan 45), Amber Glavey (for Cunningham 50).
