Goals from Hanniffy and Kilkenny help Tribeswomen make short work of Limerick

Galway 3-14

By Joel Slattery

GALWAY sealed their place in the knock-out stages of the All-Ireland camogie championship after an impressive nine-point win over Limerick in Bruff on Saturday.

The hosts, only managed 1-2 from play in the hour after an eye-catching display from the Galway defence, led by Heather Cooney at number six. The one negative from this solid performance however, was the free-count, with Niamh Mulcahy pointing eight to keep Limerick in a game where they were thoroughly out-played.

This was a point acknowledged by Galway manager Cathal Murray: “It’s something we need to work on,” he admitted. “There’s plenty of things that didn’t go right today that we need to work on and the free count is certainly one of them.

“We will improve in the next three weeks and we will be putting in huge effort in the next three weeks as well. It’s great to be there and it’s great to have the Kilkenny match to look forward to,” he added, looking ahead to a meeting with the Cats where a win will secure a spot in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“We’re very happy with three wins from three, we targeted that at the start of the year – we had hoped to win the three and we are delighted to get the victory today,” Murray said, outside the victorious dressing room.

Galway took an eight point lead into the half-time break after two goals had Limerick on the back foot. The home team were slow to get going in the sweltering heat at Bruff GAA club and when Niamh Kilkenny smashed the ball into the roof of the net, the winners were 1-3 to no score up after 12 minutes.

Kilkenny had opened the scoring before two points from highly-rated youngster Carrie Dolan as Galway set the stall out early en route to a third win out of three in the championship.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.