Kilkerrin-Clonberne manager Willie Ward said the manner in which they carved out their win over newcomers St Ergnat’s, Moneyglass, who were appearing in their first AIB All-Ireland SFC club final at Croke Park, was superb.
The Antrim side pushed the reigning champions all the way but could not find a way to prevent the Galway club from winning their fifth AIB All-Ireland SFC club title in a row.
“It’s great to be here, it was a terrific game. It really was a tough contest. We had to work all the way for it. We worked hard in the first half, even though it was close,” said Ward.
“We just nearly had established a lead and they got the goal to come back into it. Then I think in the second half, we stepped up our game a fair bit and changed where we attacked a bit.
“We got a bit more change out of that. Experienced players started to come into the game in the second half and I think that made a huge difference to it.”
Chloe Miskell and Lynsey Noone grabbed goals in either half as Kilkerrin-Clonberne retained the crown and extended their remarkable unbeaten championship run to 53 games.
“Every one of those All-Ireland wins is special in some way,” added Ward. “I suppose five is a milestone number in any sport. Five is a milestone and we have achieved that. It is very, very hard to do.
“It takes incredible application and dedication from a cohort of players all over five years and longer. Because we’d been at it quite a few years before we made the breakthrough as well. A lot of them have been on the road the whole 13 years, so it’s something special to have players like that.”
St Ergnat’s manager Maxi Curran said he was extremely proud of his team but that experience was key in the final.
“I think that is ultimately the difference. We made a lot more mistakes than them and they were very clinical when we did make the mistakes. Whatever mistakes they did make, I don’t think we punished them in the way they did to us. Hats off to them.
“Maybe we tried to push on a wee bit early in the second half, we left a few gaps and we just got punished from the mistakes we made. I think they always had that potential to do that. Whenever you left the door ajar at all, they were going to do that. You can’t defend for 60 minutes either, so we had to have a go, but we just got caught then for doing so.”
Kilkerrin-Clonberne, with 14 of the starting line-up from last year’s final win over Kilmacud Crokes, led by 1-4 to 1-2 at the break at Croke Park on Saturday.
Ten minutes from the break Moneyglass reduced the gap to a single point through Leah Stewart, but Kilkerrin-Clonberne immediately responded with a clinically-taken goal from Chloe Miskell following excellent approach work from Hannah Noone and Nicola Ward.
St Ergnat’s came roaring back into contention when Stewart palmed into the net in the 24th minute after a Cathy Carey shot for a point had hit the post.
A second free from Olivia Divilly ensured Kilkerrin-Clonberne were two points in front at the break and the westerners increased their advantage on the restart with back-to-back scores from midfielder Aisling Madden and Eva Noone.
Miskell also added to her earlier goal with a point from close-range as Kilkerrin-Clonberne slowly asserted their authority.
First-time finalists St Ergnat’s had come into this game on the back of an outstanding semi-final victory against Kilmacud Crokes, but they found themselves eight points in arrears when Niamh Divilly fed Lynsey Noone inside for a 44th minute goal and they never looked back as they retained the Dolores Tyrrell Memorial Cup for the fifth year in a row.
