Banner cruise to final victory

Banner Ladies  5-16

Cooraclare  0-5

Ireland hockey international Naomi Carroll inspired Banner Ladies to capture their fourth Clare Senior Football Championship crown in five years with an impressive tally of 4-2.

Cooraclare had no answer to the scintillating display of the Banner Ladies’ corner-forward, who simply tormented their defence with four superb goals and tireless support play for her colleagues, despite spraining her left ankle before the game.
By the time Carroll had rattled the net for the third time in the 21st minute to put Banner Ladies 3-3 to 0-1 ahead, Cooraclare were already facing the prospect of a heavy defeat.
Pre-match expectations of a competitive senior decider proved wide of the mark as a disjointed Cooraclare outfit never scaled the heights of their encouraging eight-point win over 2010 champions West Clare Gaels in the semi-final.
While Banner Ladies were hotly fancied to put two titles back-to-back, no ladies’ football pundit would have predicted a 26-point victory for the Ennis-based outfit in the 30th senior final.
The side has now completed a league and championship double for the third time in four years, having defeated West Clare Gaels in the Division One League final in May. They also achieved this feat in 2008 and 2009 and will now go on to play in the Munster club series on October 13.
Cooraclare’s lacklustre display is all the more disappointing when you take into account only nine points separated the sides when the Banner Ladies triumphed by 2-21 to 5-3 in the second round of the championship.
Considering Cooraclare reserved their best displays for the knockout stages of the championship, having failed to win any of their group games, it is hard to fathom how they could only manage two  points from play over the hour – one apiece from Eithne Morrissey and Anne Marie Callinan.
When you add in Cooraclare’s great tradition, leading the roll of honour with Fergus Rovers with nine titles, as well as their fighting spirit, it makes their paltry tally of five points all the more puzzling.
The Blues got off to a promising start against a very strong swirling wind when veteran Eithne Morrissey split the posts from close range.
However, shortly afterwards Cooraclare were rocked when Naomi Carroll gave Mairéad Griffin no chance with an unstoppable low drive to the back of the net after two minutes.Niamh O’Dea converted a free and Aoife O’Gorman missed a good scoring opportunity after a good catch from Eithne Morrissey.
A Niamh Keane point left it 1-2 to 0-1 after 10 minutes before an effort from Ann Marie Callinan was off-target.  Naomi Carroll crowned a defence-splitting 30m solo run by blasting the ball past Mairéad Griffin before Louise Henchy hit the target from a free to leave the winners 2-3 to 0-1 ahead aftere 15 minutes.
When Naoimi Carroll finished off a great forward passing movement involving four players with her third goal in the 21st minute, Cooraclare were 11 points in arrears.  Ann Marie Callinan narrowed the gap slightly with two converted frees but disaster struck about four minutes from the interval when a long, speculative shot from Louise Henchy ended up in the net after Mairéad Griffin lost her footing. This goal summed up a day when everything went wrong for Cooraclare against a slick Banner Ladies’ machine.
A lot of the pre-match speculation centred on the importance of limiting the supply to the Banner’s top scorer, Niamh O’Dea. Cooraclare had her double marked on occasions, which provided space for Niamh Keane and Naomi Carroll to exploit.
A superb midfield display from Louise Henchy and Katie Cahill and some great defending by their full-back line in particular provided the platform for the Banner Ladies’ runaway success. Louise Woods played a captain’s part by dominating at centre-back and although Laurie Ryan conceded vital inches against Eithne Morrissey, she never allowed her to get too close to the goals.
In fact, Morrissey, who worked hard throughout, had to come too far out on occasions to win possession, negating her goal-scoring threat from close range. Niamh Chambers, Noreen McGuane, Orlaith Reidy and Loura Lillis also tried hard.
The interval deficit of 4-6 to 0-4 was too big for Cooraclare to overhaul, even with a strong wind at their backs in the second period.
After the restart, the Banner Ladies’ dominance continued with Louise Henchy cancelling out an early point from Ann Marie Callinan. This proved to be ­Cooraclare’s last score from play and their final point came from a Callinan free 10 minutes from the end.Banner Ladies were simply coasting when Naomi Carroll collected a quick free from Niamh Keane in the right corner and beat Griffin from close range for her fourth goal.
Two minutes later the hard-working Eithne Morrissey was unlucky when her goal-bound shot hit the bottom of the left upright and went wide.
Half-time substitutes Gráinne Nolan and Aoife Keane gave Banner Ladies a renewed lease of life and carried the ball well against the wind. Banner finished with a flourish, outscoring their opponents by 0-8 to 0-1 in the last quarter.

Banner: Emma O’Driscoll; Sinéad O’Keeffe, Laurie Ryan, Sinead Quinn; Rebecca Culligan, Louise Woods (captain), Michelle Delaney; Louise Henchy, Katie Cahill; Eva O’Dea, Niamh Keane, Sue Higgins; Naomi Carroll, Niamh O’Dea, Niamh Cavanagh.
Subs: Gráinne Nolan (half-time) for Eva O’Dea, Aoife Keane (half-time) for Niamh Cavanagh, Aoibheann Malone (48 mins) for Naomi Carroll, Sonya Maher (52 mins) for Susan Higgins and Orlaith Lynch (55 mins) for Sinéad Quinn.
Scorers: Naomi Carroll (4-2), Louise Henchy (1-6, 2f), Niamh O’Dea (0-4, 2f), Niamh Keane (0-2), Gráinne Nolan, Katie Cahill (0-1) each.
Wides: 13; frees won: 16.
Cooraclare: Mairéad Griffin; Bernie Kelly, Majella Lillis, Sheerena Clarke; Elaine Kelly, Orlaith Reidy, Lourda Lillis; Ellie O’Gorman, Róisín Looney; Noreen McGuane (captain), Aoife O’Gorman, Niamh Chambers; Anne Marie Callinan, Eithne Morrissey, Helen Quinn.
Subs: Áine Pyne (half-time) for Aoife O’Gorman, Aideen Lineen (50 mins) for Elaine Kelly, Ciara Golden (53 mins) for Anne Marie Callinan,  Jacinta Tubridy (55 mins) for Helen Quinn, Sinead Burke (54 mins) for Majella Lillis.
Scorers: Ann Marie Callinan (0-4, 3f), Eithne Morrissey (0-1).
Wides: 5; frees won: 15.
Player of the game: Naomi Carroll, Banner Ladies.

Referee: Barry Kelly, St Joseph’s, Miltown