ROYALS GRAB VICTORY AGAINST ORCHARD
ARMAGH 4-5 MEATH 2-12
Richard Bullick at the Athletic Grounds
Leading by eight points early in the last quarter, Armagh somehow managed to lose their final regular league game against Meath in the Athletic Grounds as the excellent Emma Duggan snatched victory for the Royals with a last-kick free.
The winning score came in the 10th minute of injury-time moments after the Meath forward had netted a fine equalising goal and took Duggan’s tally to 1-9 on an afternoon when there was plenty of edge despite nothing tangible being at stake.
National League title holders Armagh and All Ireland champions Kerry had already booked their tickets to Croke Park for a repeat of last season’s Division One showpiece on April 12 but both finalists lost in this concluding round of regular games.
Kerry were narrowly beaten by Dublin on their own pitch in Tralee, while Armagh will go into the decider at GAA headquarters on the back of double defeat having also lost their penultimate match away to Waterford the previous Saturday.
Presumably keen to bounce back from that chastening double-digit drubbing in the south east, Armagh didn’t field a very experimental line-up like the then manager Greg McGonigle had done in the round seven dead rubber against Dublin at the same venue last season.
Captain Clodagh McCambridge and her predecessor as skipper, Kelly Mallon, made their first starts of the campaign after being injured while evergreen veteran Caroline O’Hanlon returned to the team after missing the Waterford fixture.
The fourth change compared to the line-up in Kilmacthomas seven days earlier saw Brianna Mathers replace 2024 All Star nominee Anna Carr in nets and the Shane O’Neills goalkeeper played an absolute blinder.
On an afternoon when Meath’s three-time All Star Monica McGuirk was at fault for one Armagh goal and could perhaps have done better too when Caoimhe McNally raised her first green flag at this level, Mathers shone at the other end.
Underling the sense that the Orchard has two of the best keepers around, she produced a series of stunning saves without which Armagh, who had just nine scores in this game, four of them majors, might have been beaten by a comfortable margin by their abrasive visitors.
Managed by former Orchard supremo Shane McCormack, Meath came to town wanting to avenge the double-digit defeat by Armagh in their own Ashbourne backyard in the National League last season and being beaten in an All Ireland group game at the Athletic Grounds.
With two rounds of fixtures remaining, Meath were still in mathematical contention for a place in the final but their hopes evaporated with a narrow loss away to Kerry last time out which confirmed the Kingdom and Orchard crews would meet again in the big game.
Armagh made no fewer than a dozen substitutions during this game, including goal-scorer McNally coming off again, with teenage Silverbridge goalkeeper Cailin Traynor and Lara Marsden, daughter of the legendary Diarmaid, making their first Orchard appearances.
Ballyhegan’s Blathnaid Hendron, who was unable to take the field for Armagh throughout last year, got a run in the closing stages and there was some game-time for Sarah Quigley, who had missed the first five NFL fixtures due to a hamstring problem.
McCambridge and Crossmaglen legend Lauren McConville, who had been deputising as skipper so far this season, were two of only four Armagh players who stayed on the field for the duration along with the 40-year-old O’Hanlon and Roisin Mulligan.
For long enough it looked like the old adage about goals winning games would apply here as Armagh scored three in the opening period to take a six-point interval lead despite playing into a bit of a breeze on an afternoon of improving weather after earlier rain.
Duggan drew first blood for Meath with a lovely long point in the fourth minute but Blaithin Mackin quickly levelled with her left foot for Armagh after a nice run and O’Hanlon had a chance to give the hosts the lead but her shot hadn’t enough power to beat McGuirk.
The first notable Mathers save denied Duggan but she followed up by pointing to put the visitors back in front and then doubled the Royals’ lead in the 14th minute after her colleagues had kicked a couple of wides.
Experienced campaigner Mallon confidently converted a free won by her Armagh Harps clubmate Emily Druse before Joe Feeney and Darnell Parkinson’s side raised their first green flag on the quarter hour mark.
Niamh Coleman began by pilfering possession and finished by rifling to the Meath net after receiving a nice ball from her namesake and club captain Niamh Henderson, with Mallon, Aoife McCoy and Mackin having also been involved in between.
Armagh’s second goal four minutes later won’t make enjoyable viewing for McGuirk as the ball bounced over her into the net after Eve Lavery sent in a speculative shot which Mallon swished at like a tennis serve, though it was hard to tell whether she got an actual touch.
Meath captain Niamh Gallogly was sinbinned for a nasty yank on McConville’s arm as she burst forward, with the resulting free from Mallon nudging the Ulster champions six points clear, though the Royals pulled two back quite quickly.
Ciara Smyth scored their fourth point of the day and Duggan nailed another free after Grace Ferguson was whistled for charging in defence but Mathers then denied Megan Thynne with a truly brilliant save low down.
The uncertain umpires took a long time to signal that Duggan’s next free had gone over but Armagh hit back with their best goal of the game, finished superbly by McCoy after brilliant build-up play led by Druse.
Sporting a rather splendid pair of fancy new boots but still making the same searing breaks which have become her hallmark, the 21-year-old medical student raced up the middle of the field after Mackin had picked off a Meath attack.
Druse flicked the ball to McCoy, continued her run from the return pass and found Henderson, who did well to get the offload away to McCoy and the Orchard stalwart from Dromintee drove it home to double Armagh’s lead.
Lavery somehow shanked a straightforward free from in front of the posts past the left upright and the half ended with some appalling petulance from rugby flop Vikki Wall, who has returned to the Meath ranks after failing to cut the mustard in the oval ball code.
Louise Kenny, who needed 16 stitches in her face after the league game against Meath last season, had to leave the field briefly for less dramatic running repairs – temporarily replaced by Megan McCann between another two points from Duggan, the first of them from a free.
Druse earned another free for Mallon to convert before both teams started ringing the changes and Mathers made another incredible save to thwart Thynne, this time from almost point-blank range.
The scoreless, abrasive Vikki Wall somehow escaped being sinbinned for a gratuitously late hit on Kenny, who could have done without another knock, but McNally got Armagh’s fourth goal within about a minute of replacing Druse.
McCoy seemed to be pulled back as she attacked up the right flank but kept going in a move which featured McConville and Henderson twice each, another sub Maeve Lennon, Coleman and McCambridge before McNally got the ball on the left.
The Derrynoose youngster who has been Armagh’s supersub this season, scoring a point in each of her first five Orchard outings off the bench before drawing a blank against Waterford last time out, lobbed the ball into the far corner with her left foot from a fairly acute angle.
Armagh have a strong squad with plenty of far more experienced players but newcomer McNally has certainly caught the eye in this campaign to date and already looks to have a bright future in the orange jersey.
Duggan reduced the arrears with a free just after Traynor had come on for Mathers with a nice point from sub Ella Moyles following before a goal by Smyth left just a kick of the ball between the teams again.
By this stage, Lavery, Druse, Mathers, Mackin and Grace Ferguson had all left the field, with Mallon and Maeve Ferguson soon following, but Armagh held their own during a scoreless 10 minutes in which both teams had chances.
Smyth and young Armagh sub Eimear McGeown traded wides, McGuirk kept a dropping shot from McCoy out of her top right corner and McConville produced a brilliant block against Vikki Wall, which would have felt especially satisfying.
An O’Hanlon shot was well off target and Meath finally ended the reasonably brief famine with another Smyth point, though the tremendous McConville cancelled it out by banging over a free from long range that would have been worth two points in a men’s match.
But then came the well-taken Duggan goal which brought Meath level and, when sub Ciara Garvey got bottled up from Traynor’s short kickout, the referee gave a free for over-carrying and Duggan made no mistake from in front of the posts just before the final whistle went.
Although the top two teams finished level on 15 points with Kerry having a slightly superior scoring difference to their Orchard rivals, Armagh were deemed to have finished first in the table courtesy of having won the match between the two tied teams.
But the destination of the title won’t be decided until these sides meet in Croke Park on Saturday week when Armagh will be aiming to retain the crown won last April courtesy of victory in what was the Orchard outfit’s first NFL final.
Tyrone and Mayo were relegated after losing away to Kildare and Waterford on respective scorelines of 4-10 to 2-8 and 2-13 to 1-6, while Dublin pushed Leinster rivals Meath into fifth place courtesy of their 2-12 to 2-10 win down in Kerry.
ARMAGH: B Mathers; M Ferguson, C McCambridge (capt), L Kenny; G Ferguson, L McConville (0-1; 1f), R Mulligan; N Coleman (1-0), B Mackin (0-1); E Druse, A McCoy (1-0), E Lavery; K Mallon (1-3; 3f), N Henderson, C O’Hanlon. Subs used: M McCann for Kenny (temp 33-37, 51mins), M Lennon for E Lavery (43), C McNally (1-0) for Druse (47), C Traynor for Mathers (49), L Kavanagh for Mackin (52), C Garvey for G Ferguson (53), E McConaghy for Henderson (53), E McGeown for Mallon (55), S Quigley for M Ferguson (56), L Marsden for McCoy (60), B Hendron for C McNally (67), M Lavery for N Coleman (68).
MEATH: M McGuirk; A Sheridan, S Wall, K Kealy; K Newe, MK Lynch, A Gaffney; N Gallogly (capt), O ‘Sheehy; M Thynne, M Farrelly, C Smyth (1-2); M Byrne, V Wall, E Duggan (1-9; 4f). Subs: K Bermingham for Byrne (36), C Lawlor for Gaffney (40), E Moyles (0-1) for Sheehy (44), N Troy for K Kealy (47), O Callan for Thynne (50), N McEntee for Farrelly (55), O Smith for Sheridan (56).
Referee: David Hurson (Monaghan).
