Galway 3-11

Kildare 1-8

By Kevin Egan at Pearse Park

THERE may be lingering disappointment all around Galway at the county’s failure to secure a place in Sunday’s All-Ireland treble header at Croke Park, but the future prospects of the Tribeswomen received a huge shot in the arm last Saturday when Daniel Moynihan’s minors produced a performance that featured both defensive resolve and attacking innovation, crucial ingredients in their comprehensive win over Kildare.

While tradition certainly favoured the Connacht champions – this was Galway’s 11th final in the last 20 renewals of this competition, while Kildare were competing in their first ever final at this grade – the absence of any U-16 formline, allied to some eye-catching results for the Lilywhites en route to this final, suggested that Galway were in for a tricky outing here.

In the first quarter, that was exactly how it transpired. With a strong wind blowing into their faces, attacking play into the northern, scoreboard end of the ground proved very difficult for Galway, with the ‘scoring zone’ restricted to a distance of no more than 20 metres from the goal.

At the other end of the pitch, the full back line – brilliantly anchored by Maryanne Jordan – did well to protect Leah O’Halloran’s goal, but Kildare were able to pick off scores from Mayah Doyle, Niamh Farrelly and Sarah McGovern.

The restart after McGovern’s point was pounced upon by wing forward Aoife Murnane, who drove at the Galway goal and held off a tackle before firing the ball inside O’Halloran’s near post, and when Leah McGovern added another point from the next attack, Galway were under immense pressure and taking on water.

If this was an American sport, Moynihan would have been screaming for a timeout at this stage, but to the immense credit of his players, they worked things out on the fly and were able to make the adjustments needed to put themselves in a very different position by half-time.

Pictured: Galway’s Kate Thompson of Galway on the attack against Heidi Lyons of Kildare during the All-Ireland Ladies Football Minor A Final at Pearse Park, Longford on Saturday. Photos: Ben McShane/Sportsfile.