Shock and awe! St Dominic’s stun champions
John Keane Kia Roscommon LGFA SFC quarter-final
St Brigid’s 2-10 St Dominic’s 4-10
Kevin Egan at Kiltoom
St Dominic’s wielded the knife in Kiltoom on Sunday, so the crown will rest upon a new head in Roscommon this autumn. Or to use a more accurate metaphor, St Dominic’s wielded the chloroform rag, asphyxiating their hosts – who simply couldn’t muster up the fighting spirit needed for a game where Kaitlyn Egan’s hat-trick caught the eye – but it was all about St Dominic’s running the highlighter pen over ‘dog’ in the word underdog.
The mantle of favouritism in the race to succeed St Brigid’s as champions will now pass to Boyle while Clann na nGael’s experience and guile (not to mention their long track record of knocking over St Dominic’s in semi-finals) will mark them out as the biggest threat to the Abbey Park club, but the sheer grit that St Dominic’s displayed here means that they look more ideally poised than ever to break through their semi-final ‘glass ceiling’ and to give themselves a chance of winning a first ever senior club title.
Hannah O’Connor set the tone with an early turnover win, Áine O’Meara somehow extricated herself from a committee of four St Brigid’s defenders that lacked conviction in the tackle to set up an early goal for Kaitlyn Egan, and the versatile wing-forward doubled her personal tally with a ground shot that crashed into the net via the crossbar in the fifth minute.
St Brigid’s successfully put out this fire, hitting back with 1-4 in a row. Kara Gallagher contributed 1-1 while Alison Nugent’s two points could just as easily have been one green flag and one white one, with Áine O’Brien also hitting the crossbar.
However, the problem for St Brigid’s against a St Dominic’s side that came into this game on the back of three comprehensive defeats, the most recent by a 15-point margin, was that the can was open and the worms were everywhere. Aidan Connaughton’s side were now full of belief, and they continued to win the scraps, most notably when Lilly Murray somehow kept an attack alive while surrounded by three players, yielding the penalty that Aimee O’Connor converted to help make it 3-4 to 1-6 at half-time.
St Brigid’s weren’t miles off their opponents from general play, but they just couldn’t find a way to address their issues. Kate Nolan was switched to full-forward but they quickly realised that her influence was sorely needed in the middle third where so many other key players were misfiring, and if Kaitlyn Egan ghosting in to score two first-half goals was an egregious failure, allowing the same player to net again to start the second half was a capital offence.
Without ever looking like themselves, St Brigid’s got a stay of execution, and when Kate Nolan floated in a 30-metre free that took a last-second deflection past Rachel Corcoran, they were back within three points and salvation was at hand.
That was until Ria Lennon’s yellow card a couple of minutes later, and against a side that was already in possession of a clear edge when it came to competitive edge, an extra player was all St Dominic’s needed to tag on the last three points through Michaela Lohan, Aimee O’Connor and Aoife Gavin, emphatically completing their act of regicide as they did so.
St Brigid’s: Holly Martin; Áine McGrath, Aoibhe Lennon, Shauna Francis; Ciara Walsh, Ria Lennon (0-1), Sally O’Hara; Marian Nolan (0-1), Abby Curran; Claire Grehan (0-1), Alison Nugent (0-2), Kate Nolan (1-1, 1-1f); Lucy Sheffield (0-2, 0-1f), Kara Gallagher (1-1), Áine O’Brien (0-1). Subs: Aoife Minnock for Gallagher (39), Joanna Hughes for O’Hara (54).
St Dominic’s: Rachel Corcoran; Laoise Mahon, Michelle Rogers, Claudine O’Connor; Caroline Dowling, Niamh Fitzgerald, Hannah O’Connor; Anna Campbell, Áine O’Meara (0-2); Kaitlyn Egan (3-0), Aimee O’Connor (1-2, 1-0 pen, 0-1f), Michaela Lohan (0-1); Lilly Murray, Niamh Watson, Aoife Gavin (0-5, 0-2f). Sub: Hannah Murray for C O’Connor (52).
Referee: Aaron Clogher (Pádraig Pearses).
Stat Attack
Wides: St Brigid’s 5; St Dominic’s 9
Red cards: 0
Yellow cards: St Brigid’s 1 (R Lennon, 53); St Dominic’s 0
Player of the Match
Kaitlyn Egan (St Dominic’s)
