Tipp head into next Minor campaign as winners

CAMOGIE: All-Ireland Under 17 Development Series Final

Tipperary 2-11

Kilkenny 2-7

Report: Joe Scully at the Camogie Grounds, The Ragg

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Emma Bonner (Tipperary)

SCORERS – Tipperary: Aoibhin Maher 1-3 frees; Emma Bonner 0-4; Faye Lavin 0-3 (2 frees); Kellie O’Dwyer 1-0; Eavann Duffy 0-1.

Kilkenny: Tara Cody 1-4 (0-4 frees); Keelin Henebry 1-0; Shauna Moloney (free), Lucy Cooney, Keelin Byrne 0-1 each.

Tipperary had a comfortable four-point victory over Kilkenny in the final of the All-Ireland Under 17 Development Series on Sunday afternoon.

A strong first half performance by the Premier girls laid the foundation for the win, as they outscored the Cats 1-7 to 1-2. Both sides deserve huge credit for a fine game, with some of the skill levels on display through out of the highest quality, as well as some of the fielding, and the hooking and blocking from both teams.

Tipp were quickest out of the traps and opened the scoring in just the second minute through an Aoibhín Maher free. The impressive Emma Bonner added another point in the fifth minute with an impressive finish from a very tight angle, after being set up by Michelle Lee.

Kilkenny got off the mark in the fourteenth minute when Shauna Mahony pointed from a free. This score however would set the home side on a run where they would score 1-4 without reply, including Aoibhín Maher two frees, a Bonnar effort from play sandwiched in between, before Maher goaled in the 20th minute from a free from the 30-metre line, with her shot taking the Kilkenny defence by surprise.

Faye Lavin added another from a free with her first touch after coming on less than a minute before to leave Tipp 1-6 to 0-1 up in the 23rd minute.

The game would go scoreless for the next six minutes before Kilkenny hit their second score, when Keelin Henebry tapped into an empty net from close range after a Tara Cody effort was saved by Meabh Leahy in the Tipp goal.

Tipperary responded through a Lavin a free before Kilkenny had the final say of the half in added time when Lucy Coomey finished off a fine team move, started by an excellent run by Shauna Mahony, as Tipp went in at the break leading 1-7 to 1-2.

The second half started in a very even matter with the game going back and forth, the sides trading the first five scores of the half, with Faye Lavin opening the scoring for Tipp in the second minute with a fine effort from play, after being set up by Emma Bonner, before Tara Cody struck for the Cats through a dead ball.

Then it was the turn of Emma Bonner with the Cashel native scoring a fine individual score, before Cody struck again for the away side through another free, and it was Bonnar once again who left the gap at six points after 36 minutes.

Kilkenny then took over and slowly came into the game over the next fifteen minutes, scoring an unanswered 1-2 to leave just a point in it. Two frees from Cody had the gap at four, before she had the lead just to a point in the 48th minute, after a neat finish to the back of the net from a very acute angle.

Any sign of Kilkenny turning things fully around were put to bed in the 53rd minute when a long-range effort from Kellie O’Dwyer somehow found its way to the back of the Kilkenny net, a goal that stopped any momentum the Cats had built up.

That would be the last score until stoppage time when Keelin Byrne reduced the gap to three with a fine effort from play, but Tipp hit the insurance score in the 63rd minute through Eavann Duffy after a fine run and finish, the final score of the game.

TEAMS – Tipperary: Meabh Leahy (Moyne-Templetuohy); Kate Nevin (Templemore), Ella Friend (Toomevara, Capt), Malwina Dziewiatka (Burgess/Duharra); Ciara Crofton (Roscrea), Kellie O’Dwyer (Silvermines), Emily McGrath (Brian Borus); Eavann Duffy (Moyle Rovers). Emma Kiely (Moyle Rovers); Aoibhín Maher (Ballybacon/Grange), Emma Bonner (Cashel King Cormacs), Torrie Doyle (St Rita’s Fethard); Grace Stapleton (Borris-Ileigh), Michelle Lee (Slieve Felim Rapparees), Eimear Duggan (Holycross/Ballycahill).

Subs: Sarah O’Dwyer (Clonoulty/Rossmore) for McGrath (18); Abi Kelly (Borris-Ileigh) for Crofton (18); Faye Lavin (St Rita’s Fethard) for Duggan (22); Niamh Manton (Cashel King Cormacs) for Maher (HT); Eibhlin Rourke (Newport/Ballinahinch) for Stapleton (HT), Orla Gleeson (Knockavilla-D Kickhams) for Duffy (44); Ruth Maher (Drom & Inch) for Lavin (48); Aoibhín Maher for Doyle (49), Ciara Crofton for Dziewiatka (51), Torrie Doyle (St Rita’s Fethard) for Gleeson (60).

Kilkenny: Orla Duggan, Mia Dunne, Sinead Jones, Ellie Fenlon, Caroline Coughlan, Chloe Teehan, Sinead Henderson, Aoibheann Ryan, Lilly Ryan, Naomi Kerr, Shauna Mahony, Ava Sutton, Ella Maher, Lucy Coomey, Fauve Walsh.

Subs: Marie Ryan for Fenlon (19), Tara Cody for Walsh (21), Keelin Henebry for Kerr (HT); Kadhla Croke for Sutton (HT), Ciara Nolan for Ryan (44); Keelin Byrne for Mahony (48); Jane O’Shea for Coughlan (58), Ella Maher for Byrne (60+1).

Referee: Mike Ryan(Tipperary)