Flannan’s in Munster final

St Flannan’s College, Ennis 5-9   Presentation, Thurles 4-3

IN a hard-fought contest played under lights at Dr Morris Park in Thurles last Friday, St Flannan’s overcame Presentation, Thurles in the Munster Colleges Senior A Camogie semi-final and, as a result, they will play St Mary’s from Charleville or St Mary’s from Nenagh in the provincial final at Newmarket this Saturday at 2pm.
Forty-eight hours before the semi-final they played the quarter-final against St Joseph’s of Borrisoleigh and needed extra time to account for their opposition. They followed that up on Thursday with a successful outing in the junior girls’ football county final.
For the second time in a week, the game was delayed by 40 minutes, this time due to difficulty with the lights. At 7.10pm, the ball was thrown in and a determined St Flannan’s managed to thwart many of Thurles’ opportunities. The Tipperary school played with the aid of the wind but despite having plenty chances, they didn’t make it count on the scoreboard. Chloe McAleer, Sinéad Quinn and the skilful Aoife Keane played well for St Flannan’s.
At the other end, Kate O’Neill won plenty of possession at wing-forward and at half-time, Flannan’s led 1-2 to 1-0, with Sinéad O’ Keeffe scoring the goal and Nikki Kaiser and Rachel Mulcaire each adding points.
Aided by a strong breeze, St Flannan’s were in confident mood for the second half. Thurles came out a rejuvenated team and in the first five minutes managed to edge in front, scoring a goal and three points. This only served to ignite St Flannan’s as they found a purple patch and blitzed their opposition with goals from Orla Devitt and two for Sinéad O’ Keeffe to complete her hat-trick. Nikki Kaiser was also in fine form and in the same period added 1-5 to put the result beyond Thurles’s grasp.
Two Thurles goals in two minutes left supporters fretting a late surge might spoil the party but Nikki Kaiser moved back to tighten up the defence. At the same time, the forwards managed to respond with the two last scores of the game from Aoibheann Malone and the ever dominant Kate O’Neill.

St Flannan’s panel: Suzy O’Shea, Claire McMahon, Clodagh Lawlor, Chloe McAleer, Sinéad Quinn, Aoife Keane, Rae-Alice Wall, Rachel Mulcaire, Alana O’Brien, Kate O’Neill, Aoibheann Malone, Orla Devitt, Nikki Kaiser, Sinéad O’Keeffe, Shaunagh O’Brien, Rebecca Crowe, Lauren Tuohy, Lauren McGuane, Katie Malone and Sally Carrig.