Susie points Portlaoise to junior camogie title

Camogie Junior Championship Final 

Portlaoise 1-10 

St Lazarian's Abbeyleix 1-3 

PORTLAOISE claimed the Laois Junior Camogie Championship crown on Saturday afternoon with a comprehensive victory over St Lazarian’s. It was the first of the day’s double header alongside the Intermediate final in Laois Hire O’Moore Park, and it set the tone for a day of tough tackling and high quality camogie.

The day itself was the culmination of a positive year for Laois camogie and Portlaoise will now be looking to take it a step further as they go on to represent the county in the Leinster Club Junior Championship, in which they have a bye to the semi-final round.

Susie Delaney was outstanding for Portlaoise on Saturday and once again showed why she was such an integral part of the county team on their run to three finals this year.

Delaney slotted four points from play and also added a further five from placed balls on what was a blustery day, and she rightfully claimed Player of the Match honours.

The Portlaoise defence was also outstanding however, with Ciara Crowley producing a magnificent display officially from centre-back, but she covered so much ground across both backlines that she could have been situated anywhere.

The Town held St Lazarian’s to just four scores and perhaps most impressively they didn’t concede a single scoreable free, which goes to show the high level of defensive quality and work rate that Portlaoise have in their ranks.

Portlaoise requested to be moved down to this grade from the Intermediate Championship to allow them the chance to rebuild with a young team coming through once more.

They are one of the up and coming teams in Laois with a very youthful panel, a prime example being the goal scorer Savannah Lawless still having another year at minor ahead of her.

St Lazarian’s are in a similar position to Portlaoise with some talented young players coming up the ranks like Kaylee O’Keeffe and Katie Dunican amongst other and the signs are there that they could also start to compete at the Intermediate grade in the near future.

It was indeed St Lazarian’s who took the initial lead via the talented Niamh O’Shea when she drove one between the sticks from the wing three minutes in.

Susie Delaney soon replied however and the game was up and running as she slotted from the wing as she was being tackled to the ground.

Five minutes later Delaney added her second from a near identical angle and gave The Town their first lead.

Grace Foxe was called into action to deny Delaney a goal with a brilliant save from a one on one situation and Delaney had to settle for taking her score from a tough 45 out on the wing.

The Portlaoise goal did come in the 17th minute however when Grainne O’Reilly pinged the ball in from midfield down on top of Savannah Lawless and she pipped her marker in the air to guide the ball past Foxe.

Delaney added a free and Portlaoise held a comfortable six-point lead with 25 minutes gone.

St Lazarian’s shot back into contention against the run of play just seconds later when Kaylee O’Keeffe’s ball into the square caused major confusion as Portlaoise failed to clear and Katie Doyle was quickest to pounce and fire into the net.

Portlaoise were close to hitting back with another goal but Foxe did well again to clear before Amy Byrne opted to take a point rather than test Foxe again and Delaney slotted another free before half time to put them 1-6 to 1-1 ahead.

St Lazarian’s dominated the opening stages of the second half and cut the deficit back to just three points by the 38th minute with scores from O’Keeffe and Katie Dunican, and two excellent scores at that.

Delaney eventually got Portlaoise off the mark 10 minutes into the second half after a whirlwind 30 seconds of battling for possession on the St Lazarian’s 45 metre line.

The tide began to turn back in favour of Portlaoise from that point on as they began to press once more, resulting in another brace of frees for Delaney to put six between the sides again with 10 minutes left.

Delaney capped off her wondrous performance with an excellent strike from the left wing to bring her total to nine and put the game beyond reproach.

There was one final chance for St Lazarian’s to sneak back a goal late on with a major scramble in the Portlaoise area after a 45 in from O’Keeffe, but after a lot of deflecting and bouncing around the ball dribbled wide and it was game over.

SCORERS:

Portlaoise: Susie Delaney 0-9 (0-4fs, 0-1 45), Savannah Lawless 1-0, Amy Byrne 0-1.

St Lazarian’s: Katie Doyle 1-0, Katie Dunican, Kaylee O’Keeffe and Niamh O’Shea 0-1 each.

PORTLAOISE: Cara Phelan; Aileen O’Neill, Aoife Morris, Aisling McAuley; Emily Stack, Ciara Crowley, Aoife Flynn; Grainne O’Reilly, Ruby Doyle; Chloe Norton, Niamh Crowley, Susie Delaney; Savannah Lawless, Amy Byrne, Rebecca Reddin.

Subs: Faye Byrne for Norton (38m), Tyrah Duff for Lawless (58m).

ST LAZARIAN'S ABBEYLEIX: Grace Foxe; Emma Cass, Rachel Cass, Sasha O’Keeffe; Caragh Concannon, Claire Daly, Niamh Scully; Molly Finlay, Jill Gaughan; Niamh O’Shea, Kaylee O’Keeffe, Katie Dunican; Katie Doyle, Kaylah O’Meara, Emma Carney.

Subs: Laoise Dunne for Carney (48m), Clodagh Gee for Daly (57m), Lilly Finlay for Doyle (58m), Finola Kehoe for Gaughan (60m).

Referee: Anthony Stapleton (Rathdowney/Errill)