Cork claim ninth Ladies’ NFL title with replay win over Galway

Cork 0-14 Galway 1-10

Eamonn Ryan claimed that his all-conquering Cork side are in transition despite watching them claim a ninth Tesco Ladies' National Football League Division One crown on Saturday evening.

The Rebelettes beat Galway by a point in a cracking replay at O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, with dual star Rena Buckley kicking the winner two minutes from time.

Galway were rocked by the sin-binning of captain Ger Conneally with nine minutes remaining and the Rebelettes overcame a one-point deficit down the home straight.

Cork will now aim for a 10th All-Ireland crown in 11 seasons on the back of a third successive League win.

But Ryan insisted: “We have a very mixed team now. We have only a few of the older ones, a lot of the young people are trying to integrate into the system.

“It will take a bit of time but in fairness they’re giving it their best and that’s all you can hope for.”

Cork were 0-10 to 1-5 clear at half-time, recovering from Patricia Gleeson’s superb 26th-minute goal to establish a two-point interval lead.

And despite registering 14 wides, the Leesiders still did enough to place more silverware in a bulging cabinet.

Ryan acknowledged: “There’s a big work ethic there.

“At the risk of repeating myself, you’ve got people who, despite all the successes they have had, are extremely grounded.

“I use the word humble and people think I’m being disingenuous, but they’re very grounded, don’t get beyond themselves or believe half the publicity.

“And they’re very easy to work with. We work hard but it’s reciprocated by them.

“If there was any imbalance in the input, we wouldn’t be as successful, probably.

“That’s one of the nice things about the whole thing.”

Deflated Galway boss Kevin Reidy said: "It's cruel but sport is cruel.

“It can be great one day and cruel tomorrow and unfortunately it wasn’t a great day for us.

“But we couldn’t be more proud of the effort, to lose by a point and down to 14 for the last eight minutes.

“The Galway sporting public should be very proud of them.”

Galway’s thoughts now turn to the championship and the prospect of a Connacht final clash with old foes Mayo.

But the Westerners head into the summer with optimism after a competitive League campaign saw them draw one and lose two of their three games by just a point to Cork.

But Ryan’s charges remain the team that everybody has to catch in the race for the Brendan Martin Cup in September.

CORK: M O'Brien; M Ambrose, G O'Flynn, R Phelan; V Foley, R O'Sullivan, B Stack; R Buckley (0-2), B Corkery (0-1); C O'Sullivan, A Hutchings (0-3), A Walsh; D O'Sullivan, V Mulcahy (0-7, five frees), O Finn.

Subs: E Scally (0-1) for Finn (half-time), R Ní Bhuachalla for D O'Sullivan (44 mins), A Barrett for Ambrose (47 mins), O Farmer for Walsh (51 mins).

GALWAY: J Connolly; Á Seoighe, E Flaherty, S Gormally; N Ward, N Connolly, S Burke; L Ward (0-1), P Gleeson (1-0); B Hannon (0-1), A Clarke (0-3, one free), O Divilly; G Conneally, T Leonard (0-3, one free), E Concannon (0-1).

Subs: M Hoey (0-1) for N Connolly (21 mins), L Joyce for Concannon (49 mins), C Cormican for Divilly (58 mins), R Leonard for Hannon (60 mins).

Referee: M Farrelly (Cavan).