St. Brigid's have no answer as Loreto maintain dominance

Loreto Kilkenny 1-11St Brigid’s Loughrea 1-6

Eoghan Cormican at McDonagh Park

Loreto Kilkenny lifted the Corn Sceilge for the fourth year running following this comprehensive victory over St Brigid’s Vocational School Loughrea in a lacklustre All-Ireland college’s camogie final at Nenagh on Saturday.

Bridesmaids for a second consecutive year, St Brigid’s have to be extremely disappointed with their lethargic showing, underlined by the fact that they managed just three scores from open play over the hour and failed to raise a flag of any description between the 8th and 32nd minute of the contest.

No doubt, these were contributory factors in the defeat, with Loreto forging a sizeable gap during St Brigids’ barren period and though the Loughrea school pared back the margin entering the final quarter, they exhausted their full reservoir of energy in doing so.

When Loreto caught their second wind to move two points clear in the closing stages, St Brigid’s couldn’t summon a response. Put simply, the well in which they had visited on several occasions had run dry. 

Last year’s final between these two camogie nurseries proved a terribly one-sided affair, but credit to St Brigid’s who ensured Saturday’s encounter was a much tighter battle. In saying that, many similarities were to be found.

For the second year in a row, St Brigid’s were unable to develop any sort of a rhythm, allowing their opponents dictate the terms of play and if wasn’t for the outstanding efforts of centre-back Marie Cooney, the margin of defeat would have been far greater.

Remarkably, all bar one of Loreto’s front six got on the scoresheet. Throw in an unrelenting work ethic all over the field and it’s easy to see why Saturday represented Loreto’s fourth successive All-Ireland college’s victory.

In any event, it was the Connacht champions who were quicker of the mark with Rachel Monaghan twice dissecting the posts in the opening eight minutes. A positive start by all accounts and given that 12 of the St Brigid’s side had lined out in the in last year’s decider, nerves were in a no way evident. Consequently, what transpired thereafter was simply baffling.

For the remainder of the half St Brigid’s would fail to add to their tally as Loreto assumed complete control, hitting five points on the trot. Roisin Breen, Marie Doheny and Orla Hanrick all found the range as Loreto headed for the dressing room 0-6 to 0-2 to the good.

It was one-way traffic and, were it not for the endeavours of Marie Cooney and to a lesser extent Niamh Murphy and Laura Sweeney, Loreto would have been out the gap long before the interval.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.