The Galway Minor Camogie team suffered its first defeat in the Electric Ireland Minor A Championship, losing to Tipperary by 0-14 to 2-4 in the Ragg on Sunday.
Having enjoyed a winning start to the championship, Galway will be disappointed with this dip in performance, but Tipperary, hunting in packs, put Galway under all sorts of pressure throughout this round four game.
Danielle Ryan opened for Tipperary with a well-taken score from play, but when Clodagh O’Meara was fouled a minute late, Galway's Aoibheann Barry made no mistake from 55m out to bring the sides level.
Galway almost added a goal a minute later, but the Tipperary defence stood strong. Celine Guinan added two frees, before Hazel Brennan took on the Galway defence in the 10th minute, laying off to Danielle Ryan who made no mistake in giving Tipperary a three-point lead. When Ryan added her third point in the 12th minute, the initiative was with Tipperary.
Galway, however, scored a much-needed point a minute later when Barry sent a long ball to Caoimhe Kelly, who took on the defence before laying off to Helena Tarpey. Although Tarpey was hooked on her first attempt, she made no mistake the second time, sending the ball into the back of the Tipperary net to reduce the deficit to one.
Sophie Flynn teamed up with Alannah Fahy, who slotted a point to bring the sides level for the second time, but a Guinan free, and two from Kate Ferncombe and Kate Ralph extended the lead to three again.
Barry stopped Tipperary’s scoring spree with her second score of the day, and although Emer Dawn’s goal effort was stopped thanks to good work from Siofra Kelly, Ava Crowe and Caoimhe Hickey, Tipperary added another point for a 0-9 to 1-3 lead.
Galway could not produce the big second half that was needed for victory, scoring a goal and a point. But Tipperary always held the advantage after Guinan added to her tally with a free, while Galway’s first score from a Barry free came in the 39th minute.
Caoimhe Hickey stopped a second Tipperary goal, but Purcell, Aoife Mellerick, Hazel Brennan and Ali O’Kelly all added points to extend Tipp's lead, while at the other end their Tipperary defence stood strong to deny Galway the opportunity - Siobhán Carr coming closest to scoring a goal. Galway's last score came via Katie Burke who delivered to Caoimhe Kelly, who side-stepped Aoife Bourke and blasted the ball into the back of the Tipperary net. But it was too little, too late for Galway.
After four successive fixtures, the team takes a break this weekend before facing Cork in their final group game.
Galway: C Hickey, S Kelly, A Crowe, E Doyle, L Nic Dhonnacha, C McGrath, Z Rodgers, K Madden, A Fahy (0-1 ), A Barry (0-3F ), H Tarpey (1-0 ), C O’Meara, C Kelly (1-0 ), A Massey, S Flynn. Substitutes: S Carr for Tarpey (HT ), K Burke for O’Meara (38 ), A Collins for Doyle (38 ), C Glynn for Madden (40 ).
Tipperary: M O’Dwyer, A Bourke, A Fitzgerald, P Quirke, S Heffernan, S Corcoran, N Franks, K Ferncombe (0-1 ), K Raplh (0-1 ), D Ryan, C Guinan (0-4F ) , H Brennan (0-1 ) , E Dawn, D Ryan (0-4 ), L Purcell (0-1 ). Substitutes: A O’Kelly (0-1 ) for Dawn (44 ), A Mellerick (0-1 ) for Franks (48 ), Áine Finn for Purcell (58 ), A Murphy for Brennan (60 ).
Referee: Andy Larkin (Cork ).
