Hannah Tyrrell in action against Lynsey Noone from Galway. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Hannah leads the way as Dubs book final spot
Dublin joint manager Paul Casey said the boost they got when Hannah Tyrrell from Clondalkin nailed a last gasp equaliser to send this TG4 All-Ireland SFC semi-final to extra-time propelled them to victory in this cracking contest at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore on Saturday.
“When you get a score at the end to equalise it and bring it to extra-time, you get a little bit of a boost and you get the energy going into it.
‘It’s fabulous. All-Ireland semi-finals are all about winning and they’re awful to lose.
‘The girls managed to find that extra gear in extra-time, particularly that first half of extra-time, and then got crucial goals at crucial times. It was fantastic,” said Casey who is joint manager with Derek Murray from Round Tower.
“I suppose there is a lot of work we need to do and lots of areas of improvement that we know won’t be good enough in two weeks’ time.
‘At the moment we’ll get back up the road tonight now, recover and we’ll dust ourselves down. See how we are in the next couple of days and we’ve an All-Ireland final to look forward to,” said Casey.
They will now face Meath in the TG4 All-Ireland final on Sunday week, August 3, at Croke Park and Casey knows this is another contest set to go down to the wire.
“We are very familiar with each other. Over the last number of years we’ve probably played no other team as many times. Meath are excellent,” he added.
“I think they’ve improved massively as the championship has gone on. We’ve a little bit of extra homework to do on them now, but it’s great for Leinster to have two Leinster teams in the final and I’m sure there will be a massive crowd there.”
There was little between the sides throughout a fine contest, but Dublin hit the front when Hannah Tyrrell slotted home a 17th minute penalty.
The sides were back on level terms as a result of Kate Slevin and Roisin Leonard finding the range, however, and an impressive scoring spree from the Tribeswomen followed a pointed free from Tyrrell on 23 minutes.
Eva Noone, Olivia Divilly and Leonard all raised white flags for Moynihan’s charges, but with Sinead Goldrick and Niamh Hetherton getting their names on the Dublin scoresheet, the teams were level at 1-6 to 0-9 at the break.
It took 14 minutes after the redstart before the next score of the game arrived through the boot of Dublin corner-forward Kate Sullivan.
Kate Slevin levelled matters with a close-in free, Tyrrell responded with a similar effort to help Dublin re-establish a slender lead.
Galway hit back back and two points from Eva Noone edged them in front and they looked set to prevail when substitute Andrea Trill kicked over in response to a Sophie McIntyre from Lucan Sarsfields effort, but there was enough time left for Tyrrell to force extra-time with a nerveless pointed free.
Tyrrell seized the initiative for Dublin in extra-time with a brace of points and even though Olivia Divilly registered her third of the game, substitute Orlagh Nolan found the target to put Dublin two clear at 1-13 to 0-14 at the break in extra-time.
Dublin found themselves on course to set up a repeat of their 2021 decider against Meath when Rowe and Sullivan bagged goals in the second half of extra-time but they had to survive a nervous finish after Trill and Olivia Divilly rattled the net for Galway in a thrilling finale.
Lucan’s Abby Shiels played in goal for the winners.
