Free-scoring Galway women can bridge 12-year gap

CAMOGIE - All-Ireland Senior Final:GALWAY ARE seeking to bridge a 12-year gap without the Duffy Cup when they face Cork in tomorrow's Gala All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final at Croke Park.

Just one playing link with the winning side of 1996 remains: Veronica Curtin is still an influential part of the Galway team, and the Kinvara woman will line out at left half forward.

The 28-year-old Curtin has had a major influence on Galway camogie over the years. In 1994 she won the Player of the Match awards in the minor and junior All-Ireland finals. She has since captured two All Star awards.

Galway are, however, far from a one-woman outfit; in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Wexford it took a dogged and determined effort from all concerned to overcome the reigning champions, a late Jessica Gill goal securing their place in the final - their first since 1998.

The 18-year-old Athenry native is the top scorer to date in the championship this year, with a tally of six goals and 40 points from seven games.

The excellent Therese Maher is another player to watch out for in the Galway attack.

Captain Sinead Cahalan and Ann-Marie Hayes are among those powering the Galway defence, but they will have a tough job on their hands if Cork's Rachel Moloney and Síle Burns maintain their great championship form.

Those latter two have scored 5-52 between them this year, Burns contributing 3-10 from play.

Cork have lost just one game to date in the Championship; a goal separated them from Galway (1-9 to 0-9) when the teams met in the third round-robin game last June.

While tomorrow's game will almost certainly produce more scores, another close contest is in prospect.

Galway can shade it and take their second title.

CORK:A Murray; L O'Connell, C Foley, J O'Callaghan; G O'Connor, M O'Connor, S Hayes; O Cotter, B Corkery; A O'Regan, U O'Donoghue, E O'Sullivan; S Burns, R Moloney, E Ó Riordáin.

GALWAY:S Earner; S Tannion, A Kelly, T Manton; AM Hayes, S Cahalan, N Kilkenny; A Hillary, S Noone; M Dunne, T Maher, V Curtin; O Kilkenny, J Gill, B Kerins.

JUNIOR FINAL CLARE v OFFALY (Noon)

WITH Joachim Kelly - twice an All-Ireland senior medallist - in charge, Offaly are primed to take their first ever junior title tomorrow.

Clare did, however, beat Offaly on the way to the final and are favourites.

Corina Roseingrave, Claire McMahon and Deirdre Murphy are in scoring form; young Roseingrave hitting 3-8 to date.

Clare lost last year's final to a late goal, and should make amends here.

CLARE:D Lynch; C Hally, S Lafferty, A McInerney; K Lynch, D Corcoran, J Scanlon; C Morey, D Murphy (capt); C Roseingrave, S McMahon, L Linnane; S Enright, C McMahon, C Commane.

OFFALY:A Kennedy; A Kelly, E Darmody, K Brady; S O'Sullivan, M Morkan, L Sullivan; M Crean (capt), K Nugent; S Flannery, T Hannon, M Davis; F Stephens, N McCabe, A Watkins.