BARRYROE 1-11

KILMALEY 0-3

BRILLIANT Barryroe are the champions of Munster, and they captured the Mai O’Connell Munster Junior B Camogie title in style.

Having led Clare side Kilmaley 1-5 to 0-1 at the break playing with the breeze, Barryroe outscored their opponents 0-6 to 0-2 in the second half to power past the finishing line in Cappamore, Limerick.

Most impressive of all from the West Cork club was that they didn’t concede a score from play in the entire game.

‘It was superb. The celebrations are still going. The girls went to Barryroe and Timoleague schools on Monday morning. It’s great for the girls,’ manager Tom Farrell told The Southern Star.

‘We were in control after ten minutes, we were 0-3 to nil up. Before half-time, we made a switch in putting Hannah Whelton in full-forward. The first ball she got ended up in the net. We were seven up at half-time then and we got to use most of the bench. It was great.’

Barryroe joint captains Emma Deasy and Kate Whelton with the Munster Junior B cup. (Photo: Munster Camogie Facebook)

The Sky Blues were favourites coming into the game and stamped their authority early. Hannah Whelton opened the scoring inside a minute before Roisín Ní Bhuachalla and Grace Tobin had them firmly in the driving seat.

Player of the match Ní Bhuachalla pointed a monster free from beyond the 65 on 20 minutes, and Ellen O’Riordan made it 0-5 to no score after 27 minutes.

The game was very much put to bed when Emma Deasy – who scored two goals in their semi-final win over Newcastle West – floated the ball into the danger zone, allowing Whelton to fire home. Kilmaley finally got on the scoreboard courtesy of an Ava McGuane free, leaving it 1-5 to 0-1 at the break.

‘Before the girls left the dressing room for the second half, I asked for ultimate concentration. The job wasn’t done. Against the breeze, we ran at them rather than taking pot-shots. Cliona Harte was a huge addition in coming on, she was a fresh addition,’ Farrell added.

It was substitute Healy and O’Riordan who continued Barryroe’s scoring spurt.

O’Riordan added her third point to an already impressive showing. Forwards were given more of a free roam in this final and it worked a treat.

‘We always inter-change. If a player isn’t getting a ball inside, we get her out into the 40 to get her involved. Look at the corner-forward Ellen O’Riordan. She got 0-3 but got no score in the semi-final. We brought her out and she started getting involved in the game. We’ll always mix up the six forwards. We’d never leave them in one position. It just keeps them ticking over,’ the Barryroe boss explained.

Harte hit over another score late on before Ní Bhuachalla finished off what was a great day for the club. The attackers may get the plaudits but the backline deserve enormous praise.

‘My player of the match was Lucy Kirby,’ Farrell said.

‘It could have been Jill McCarthy, Aideen O’Riordan or Kate Whelton. They were unbelievable. They (Kilmaley) had scored three goals in every championship game. I said to the defence, “if we keep them to one, maybe two goals, we’d probably win the game.” Our hooks and blocks were off the wall altogether.’

Some key figures in the Barryroe backroom team were crucial, too. It was a whole-team effort.

Before the match, Maria O’Donovan, a Barryroe inter-county player who is out injured, and Síle Burns, part of the management team and a former Cork player, delivered rousing pre-game talks.

Roisín Ní Bhuachalla with the player of the match award. (Photo: Munster Camogie Facebook)

‘We would have taken the county all day long. When we got relegated last year, I said to them that there would be other teams with their eyes on the county,’ Farrell said.

‘I would put a big part to play this season down to Paul Fitzpatrick, the S&C coach. He is going with Courcey Rovers this year but he is going to stay with us as well. Once the camogie club came back, we upped our training from twice to three times a week. A fair bit of that was S&C, so we had a fair block done.’

The key now for the West Cork club is to push on in Junior A next year. We have already seen what the likes of Ballinascarthy can do with momentum behind them, and Barryroe will hope to blaze their own trail

‘I’m a great believer in not looking behind. Keep looking forward,’ Farrell said.

‘We will work on strength and conditioning again. We have a coach there that worked on a new programme to work on for two months individually, then they’ll come back as a group. Every three or four weeks, we’ll be making sure that everyone is doing their bit.

‘We have great additions to our panel next year; two or three girls are coming back into the fold. There are a lot of U16s coming up with quality too,’ Farrell added, as Christmas came early to Barryroe’s all-conquering camogie team. Cork champs, now Munster winners too.

Scorers

Barryroe: Roisín Ní Bhuachalla 0-4 (fs); Hannah Whelton 1-1; Ellen O’Riordan 0-3; Cliona Harte 0-2; Grace Tobin 0-1.

Kilmaley: Ava McGuane 0-3 (fs).

Barryroe: Meabhdh Sexton; Sarah Harrington, Kate Whelton (joint-captain), Lucy Kirby; Sarah Harte, Jill McCarthy, Eimear Whelton; Aideen O’Riordan, Grace Tobin; Aoibheann McKeogh, Hannah Whelton, Roisin McCarthy; Roisín Ní Bhuachalla, Emma Deasy (joint-captain), Ellen O’Riordan.

Subs: Cliona Harte for S Harrington; Meabh O’Sullivan for E Deasy; Sarah Harrington for R McCarthy; Caoimhe Ní Bhuachalla for A McKeogh; Aisling Coakley for S Harte; Sinead Walsh; Seodhna Walsh; Louise Coleman.

Kilmaley: Alanagh Meaney; Leona Grace, Mollie Casey, Lisa Kennedy; Nora O’Rourke, Ruth Neylon, Jenny Williams; Aida Griffey, Arabelle McGauley; Grace Doherty, Aine Slattery, Ava McGuane; Amy Clancy, Edie McGuane, Olivia Neylon.

Referee: Daniel O’Donnell (Limerick).