Issue link: http://digitaleditions.uberflip.com/i/1064318
ladiesgaelic.ie // 9 SENIOR CLUB ALL IRELAND FINAL - STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Volume 14 | Issue No 4 | PEIL Winter player. Even when they did win a kickout Foxrock-Cabinteely simply couldn't get out of their own half. In the first quarter of the game they had one single visit to the Mourneabbey 45 (which resulted in a point for Amy Connolly). The sinbinning of Emma McDonagh was a disaster for Foxrock. Being a player down they never had an out ball when under pressure in possession and Mourneabbey pounced repeatedly as Foxrock repeatedly kicked or handpassed the ball away. In the 10 minutes they had a numerical advantage the Cork girls went from one point up to 0-8 to 0-1 up. While one ten minute period never defines a game it simply left Foxcab with too much to do. They surely will regret not shutting up shop, slowing the game down and limiting turnovers as much as possible in that period. Going in 9 points up at half time put Mourneabbey in an excellent position even knowing they would have to play against the breeze in the second half. Doireann O'Sullivan's shot which dropped short in the second minute of the half showed them how much closer to goal they needed to be if they were to take on a shot. The old adage of your opponent can't score if she doesn't have the ball was about to be demonstrated masterfully. And so they slowed the game down, happy to go backwards if the shot wasn't on even to the extent that they kicked a number of frees in what would usually be considered scoring range backwards just so they could hold possession and more importantly deny the Dublin champions the ball. Mourneabbey continued to change the pace of the game up and down as they saw fit and a rapid injection of pace should have resulted in a goal as both Eimear Harrington and then Ciara O'Sullivan smashed shots off the crossbar in the 10 th minute. They continued their exhibition of how to manage a game even when Brid O'Sullivan was sinbinned holding onto the ball and restricting Foxrock to just three shots in the ten minutes of the numerical imbalance. A far cry indeed from the 7 points they had kicked in the first half with numerical superiority. The luck of the toss of the coin gave Mourneabbey the chance to play with the wind in the first half but the way they scored heavily, pressured every opposition possession and limited their key players so well and followed that up with a game management exhibition had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with hard work and no little skill. Mourneabbey players celebrate with the Dolores Tyrrell Memorial Cup