Kildare fail to break down a strong Kerry defensive line in round 3 camogie tie
Mike Wall's side came up short against Kerry 0-15 to 0-4
All Ireland Intermediate camogie group 2, round 3
Kerry 0-15
Kildare 0-4
Kildare received their second defeat in three games in a bright, sunny and dry Manguard Park on Saturday afternoon last by a Kerry team which produced an incredible defensive effort to nullify the Lilywhite attack to four points in Round 3 of the Intermediate Camogie Championship.
Kerry had three points on the board with eight minutes gone, two Jackie Horgan frees and a batted effort from an Annmarie Leen diagonal ball into the box which had Kildare hearts momentarily skip a beat.
Kildare were awarded a penalty in on 14 minutes, which Lea Sutton stepped up to take. To her frustration, Aoife Fitzgerald in the Kerry goal dived to her right hand side to produce an incredible save, and the resulting play, Kate Lynch and Jackie Horgan pointed from play to rub salt in the fresh Kildare wounds.
Two further scores from Ellen O’Donoghue and Jackie Horgan were soon added to Kerry’s tally when in the 26 minute Lea Sutton slotted over a free to register Kildare’s opening point of the game. Horgan scored Kerry’s two remaining points of the half, while Caoimhe Ní Bhuirceal and Sara Carroll added two further scores to leave the Kingdom 0-9 to 0-3 ahead at half-time.
The Kerry juggernaut kept rolling in the second-half, as their superb defensive effort once again kept Kildare scoreless for the majority of the half.
Jackie Horgan was first to score in the 35 minute while midfielder Ruth O’Connor pointed moments later.
Horgan’s final contribution to the score board came in the 40 minute, but centre-back Sara Murphy scored an incredible long-range effort eight minutes later.
Laura Collins and substitute Patrice Diggin ended the Kingdom sprawl, while Lea Sutton pointed from a free two minutes into added time for a shell-shocked Kildare, and the full-time whistle was blown soon afterwards.
Player of the Match: Jackie Horgan (Kerry). The Kildare defence could not deal with the full-forward. Horgan scored some excellent points from play while also being reliable from frees.
A special mention must go to the Kerry defence, the half-back line in particular, as they performed superbly as a unit to cut off so many Kildare scoring opportunities.
After Match Reaction
Kildare were beaten by eleven points in Round 3 of the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship by Kerry. Kildare manager, Mike Wall voiced his opinions on the defeat.
“They’re a good team. It’s tough when you’re looking at the score board. We were beaten today by the better team and we have to take that on the chin and move on.”
The strong Kerry defensive display was acknowledged by the Kildare manager.
“Kerry are an excellent team. You’d know that they’ve been competing against the stronger teams. Again, there was pockets of the game I thought we played very well. I thought our backs were outstanding today as they have been all year. All of our players that were on the field fought very well.”
“We go to Carlow next week and we’ll give it our best shot. We’ll get back to training and fingers crossed we’ll have one or two girls coming back from injuries and a few Leaving Certs back which will help the panel going forward. It is what it is, we’ll be very proud of the players today as we always are and we’ll drive on for next week."
KILDARE: Roisin Roche; Kelly Perkins, Sorcha Dolan, Ella Copeland; Shauna Mulligan, Aoife McCarthy, Ellen Morgan; Sara Carroll 0-1, Caoimhe Shanahan; Orla Carragher, Caoilfhionn Hallissey, Caoimhe Ní Bhuirceal 0-1; Lea Sutton 0-2 (0-2f), Aoife McDermott, Sarah Lavin. Subss: Molly Berns for Ellen Morgan and Aideen Walsh for Caoilfhionn Hallissey (half-time), Sinead O’Brien for Aoife McCarthy (42).
KERRY: Aoife Fitzgerald; Rachel McCarthy, Niamh Leen, Michelle Costello; Aine O’Connor, Sara Murphy 0-1, Aoife Behan; Caoimhe Spillane, Ruth O’Connor 0-1; Laura Collins 0-1, Kate Lynch 0-1, Annmarie Leen; Amy O’Sullivan, Jackie Horgan 0-9 (0-3f), Ellen O’Donoghue 0-1. Subs: Amy McCarthy for Ellen O’Donoghue, Roisin Quinn for Aoife Behan and Patrice Diggin 0-1 (0-1f) for Amy O’Sullivan (48), Norette Casey for Jackie Horgan (54), Eilish Harrington for Sara Murphy (60).
REFEREE: Ciaran Goff (Wicklow).