Defeat for Lismore in Munster Final, but Heritage Town side can hold their heads high

In time when someone sits down and decide to put the history of Lismore Camogie Club into words for all to see it should make interesting reading.

More than one chapter of any future publication on the clubs history will have to be given to the period from 2010 to 2015.

In this time Lismore have won a great deal at the highest level.

Five County Senior Titles have been won. So too have four Munster Intermediate Club crowns and 1 All-Ireland Final. And just for good measure the Heritage Town side have won three of the last four County Senior League Finals, the winners of whom are presented with the Denny Buckley Cup, put up in honour that did so much for Lismore in his lifetime.

While Lismore’s latest attempt to add to an already impressive Roll of Honour was to end in disappointment, going under to a strong Cahir side in this years Munster Intermediate Club Final at Mallow, this fine group of talented ladies as well as those that have worn the black and amber hooped shirt in recent years can hold their heads high as they will only be too well aware that what they have achieved in recent years is no mean achievement.

This many will be hoping with be the clubs last attempt to add another Munster Intermediate Club title to their Roll of Honour in a long number of years.

If they do get to play in another Intermediate Final it will mean one of two things. The first is that the Heritage Town side will have lost their senior status within the county, something that no one will want to see as if Camogie in Waterford is to be strong it will mean that it needs clubs like Lismore along with the likes of Rival’s Saint Anne’s, Cappoquin, Gailltir, De La Salle, Roanmore etc. to be all playing at the highest possible level within the county and producing players befitting such a standard.

The second reason why Lismore might get to play in a Munster Intermediate Club Championship in the near future will be that the Waterford Senior Inter County team will have dropped back out of the senior grade, something that nobody with an interest in the game will want to see happen as a great deal of work went into getting Waterford to play in the senior grade from 2016.

Lismore went into last Saturday’s Munster Final with an eight week lay off from their most recent competitive game where they beat Saint Anne’s in this years County Final back in early October.

In the time since then, the Lismore players and Management team will have left no stone unturned in a bid to be ready for last Saturday’s game, including going training at the time the final was originally fixed for two weeks ago at the Mallow venue but was called off due to the weather conditions on the day, but as everyone knows, all the training sessions in the world and all the challenge games in the world you can fit in between games fails to compensate for the lack of competitive games.

Their opponents for their part were heavily involved in recent weeks rotating between Ladies Football and Camogie on a regular basis and even managed to fit in an All-Ireland Ladies Football Semi Final between the postponed game and the re-fixture and they are out again this coming weekend in an All-Ireland final at Parnell Park in Dublin.

Yes, trying to rotate two codes at the highest level and especially at this time of the year when fields are not at their best can be difficult and the heavy ground will take its toll on the players, but if you are winning as Cahir were going into last weekends Munster Final, momentum can often see you get past the line.

It is often said that goals win games and its also often said that a strong finish to a half can see you come out on top, and in this game both proved true for the South Tipperary side.

They hit two goals, the first midway through the first half, the second four minutes from the end of normal time in the same half.

In the last ten minutes of both halves Cahir proved to be the most efficient side with the chances that came their way, hitting 1-3 in the last ten minutes of the first half and 0-4 at the end of the second half.

Lismore however will be wondering what if.

They turned around at the break 2-6 to 0-4 behind but started the second half strongly putting over the first four scores of the second half two from Aoife Hannon and one each from Caithriona McGlone and Nicola Morrissey.

The first of Aoife Hannon’s second half scores came from a ’45 after Orla McEniry defected a Emma Power goal bound effort over her own end line. Had a green flag been waved at that point would the game have a different outcome, we will never have know but it would have drawn the Heritage Town side closer to the eventual winners and no doubt would have given them plenty of confidence for the remainder of the game.

It was Cahir that had the better start to this game as the impressive Aisling Moloney put over a brace of points inside seven minutes of the game starting.

Lismore however wasted no time in responding as Marie Russell put over a point from distance and Aoife Hannon followed up with a brace of frees to give her side a 0-3 to 0-2 lead on the score board with fourteen minutes played.

However this was as good as it got for Lismore, as Cahir hit back almost straight away as Roisin Howard put the sliotar past Tanya Morrissey for the first time in this game after she connected first to a long range Aisling Moloney free which landed in around the Lismore house on the quarter of an hour mark.

Aisling Moloney followed up with another white flag for Cahir before Aoife Hannon hit her third score of the game, this time from a ’45 to leave just two between the sides with ten minutes of the half remaining.

It proved to be her sides last score of the half however as Cahir finished strong with Roisin Howard put over a free before Aisling Moloney finished the half bringing her tally for the first half on the score sheet to 1-5, the goal coming in between two white flags from another free from distance which clipped the underside of Tanya Morrissey’s crossbar and crossed the line.

Trailing 2-6 to 0-4 at the break, Lismore began the second half the hungrier side.

Aoife Hannon missed to chances to draw Lismore closer before she landed a ’45 ten minutes after the restart after Orla McEniry had done well to deny Emma Power playing in her first final at this level for the Heritage Town side.

Further scores from Aoife Hannon from a free and one each from Caithriona McGlone and Nicola Morrissey drew Lismore to within four of Cahir and the hope must be that the three in a row of titles at this level could be achieved for the club.

But just as was the case in the first half when it looked as if Lismore were closing in on the lead that Cahir had built up, Lismore failed to score after this.

Roisin Howard put over a hat-trick of scores for the South Tipperary side and deep in stoppage time after the hour mark, Lauren Fitzpatrick became only the third Cahir player to score in this game.

Cahir advance to the next stage of the competition, but Lismore can hold their heads high.

They have achieved so much in the last six years and while if they are to win a fourth County Senior Title in a row next autumn, while they will be playing in the Munster Senior Club Championship following Waterford’s Intermediate All-Ireland Final win last September against Kildare at Croke Park, against stronger opposition than they have become accustomed to playing in recent years, they will be equipped to more than hold their own any maybe after playing against the provincial big guns for a year or two (that is of course if they get out of Waterford first), there is no reason not to think they cannot add their already impressive Roll of Honour at a higher level.

Lismore: Tanya Morrissey; Sarah Coughlan, Shauna Prendergast, Sarah Geoghegan; Aoife Houlihan, Shauna Kiernan, Gráinne Kenneally; Shona Curran, Marie Russell; Aoife Hannon, Nicola Morrissey, Emma Power; Ruth Geoghegan, Caithriona McGlone, Johanna Houlihan. Sub: Jennifer Kingston for Ruth Geoghegan.

Scorers: Aoife Hannon 0-5 (3 frees, 2 ‘45’s), Marie Russell, Caithriona McGlone, Nicola Morrissey 0-1 each.

Cahir: Orla McEniry; Kirsty Arbuckle, Aoife Casey, Laura Dillon; Aoife Corcoran, Emma Buckley, Eileen Flannery; Aisling McCarthy, Caoimhe Condon; Aisling Moloney, Sinead Kennedy, Carol Casey; Gráinne Quirke, Roisin Howard, Lauren Fitzpatrick. Subs: Aoife O’Donnell for Aoife Casey, Roisin Costigan for Gráinne Quirke.

Scorers: Aisling Moloney 1-5 (1-2 frees), Roisin Howard 1-4 (0-3 frees), Lauren Fitzpatrick 0-1.

Referee: John O’Leary (Cork)