by Kevin Egan

Galway handed Cork their first defeat of the 2025 season on a 0-19 to 0-13 scoreline this afternoon in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, a result that ensures that the two counties will meet again in the Very Division 1A League final at Semple Stadium in a fortnight.

There was nothing at stake for the Rebels today, with four wins already on the board from their first four games, but manager Ger Manley still went with a relatively strong team, although there were five changes from the side that was so impressive last Saturday against Tipperary at The Ragg.

Most notable of those changes were the return of Libby Coppinger to the full-back role after her recent finger injury and a first start of the year for Amy O’Connor.

Cork certainly didn’t appear to be weakened early on, leading by the odd point in five after seven minutes and that was only with Ailish O’Reilly and Aoife Donohue pulling out top drawer scores from the two sidelines for Galway.

The next 20 minutes saw Galway effectively build up a winning position as they fired the next seven points in a row, the first three all off the stick of O’Reilly, who seemed to be able to find space wherever she moved in the wide-open expanses of the Páirc.

There was space at the other end too, with Cork leaving Katrina Mackey and Clodagh Finn isolated up front, but that didn’t work so well as they added a couple of wides from distance but struggled to get the ball into the hands of their scorers.

Áine Keane landed another spectacular strike on the run to make it 0-11 to 0-4 at the interval and while Cork were slightly improved after half-time, they continued to make sloppy, uncharacteristic errors that ultimately led to Galway moving ten clear, with Donohue and Carrie Dolan doing the bulk of the scoring, the latter ending the game with 0-10 to her credit.

Sarah Healy’s save to deny O’Connor from a daisy-cutter 20m free with a little over ten minutes remaining was Galway severing Cork’s final lifeline, and they eased to a six-point win from there.

Tipperary needed Galway to slip up to try and sneak into second spot but the Premier County didn’t look after their own side of the bargain in any event, succumbing to a 0-10 to 0-9 defeat to Waterford in Walsh Park that confirmed that there will be a new name on the Division 1A trophy this year with last year’s champions ruled out.

The Déise had plenty of their own reasons for needing a positive result as relegation wasn’t off the table before the ball was thrown in, but after starting well with points from Maggie Gostl and Annie Fitzgerald, they conceded six of the next seven scores, and also needed a superb save from Noelle Murphy to deny the returning skipper, Karen Kennedy what would have been a significant goal.

Beth Carton and Fitzgerald kept Waterford in the game by scoring late in the first half to reduce the gap to a single point, but in tough conditions that suited defenders, Tipp were still 0-9 to 0-7 in front with 50 minutes played.

A couple of missed frees was to prove crucial however and it fell to Niamh Rockett (free), Emer O’Neill and Fitzgerald to hit the scores that snatched their second win of the season.

That result left matters very simple in O’Toole Park – Dublin needed to beat Kilkenny to preserve their top-flight status. That was never on the cards as they started with the first score of the game from Aoife McKearney and were outscored by 1-8 to 0-1 by the visitors over the next 20 minutes.

Laure Murphy hit 1-5 out of that 1-8, all from frees, including one that she struck low, dipping under the crossbar for what proved to be a crucial goal.

Murphy’s second goal, also from a free, was followed by points from Caoimhe Keher Murtagh and Caoimhe Dowling just before half-time to leave 12 points between the sides and Dublin with far too much to do.

There was still a double figure margin (2-14 to 0-9) with seven minutes to play before Dublin finished well, scoring from play through McKearney, Gaby Couch and Aisling O’Neill to leave it 2-16 to 0-14 at the final whistle.

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