Royals retain lead to chalk up sweet victory
What is it about the Meath camogie team and first-half performances? Last week against Kerry in the National Camogie League Div 2A they put in an upbeat, surging opening half display and led, 0-10 to 0-4, at the break.
At Trim today in the same competition the had built up a 2-7 to 0-2 advantage by the time the referee sounded the half-time whistle and it was clear it was going to take something special from the visitors Westmeath to catch them.
Different games, same kind of opening half performances. The difference between the two games of course is that against the Kingdom, Brendan Skehan's side ended up getting caught out and losing.
Today against the Lake County Meath took the lead and held onto it. They stayed in front to claim a sweet victory on 2-13 to 1-6 scoreline with Aoife Minogue yet again underlining her prodigious talent by helping herself to 2-3.
The challenge facing manager Skehan and his selectors is to get the team playing the kind of swashbuckling camogie they are capable of producing in the opening 30 minutes and reproduce that for the entire game. If they manage to do that this new look Meath team could be really going places.
Against Kerry Meath faced into a stiff breeze in the second-half and that was undoubtedly a factor in the turnaround. Today against Westmeath there was no wind of any note yet the visitors certainly troubled the home team a lot more than they did in the opening moiety.
That's not to suggest the home team's victory was in any serious doubt. It wasn't but Westmeath did 'win' the second-half, 1-4 to 0-6. They also had a penalty which they ended up only getting a point from.
Still there was much for the Meath players and management to be pleased about in this performance. There was the team's willingness to graft and their hunger for victory. Yet there is still plenty of work to be done by Meath.
Against Kerry only two Meath players got on the scoresheet - Minogue and Grace Coleman. Today six Meath players managed to trouble the scorekeeper.
That's a step in the right direction surely but before we get carried away we should point out that between Minogue & Coleman contributed 2-9 of their team's tally. Olivia O'Halloran, Aoibhin Lally, Abbye Donnelly and Niamh Daly were the other point-getters.
They all fired over little gems; scores that augur well for the team overall prospects.
Minogue and Coleman provide the specialised skills, the sheer talent that drives this team on. Minogue was again imperious especially in that opening half, especially with her surging runs, but her opening goal certainly had a big element of luck about it.
There was 19 minutes on the clock when the ever busy, ever probing O'Halloran worked the ball to Minogue in midfield. The Dunderry player took aim, pulled the trigger and sent the ball towards the Westmeath posts at the town end. You would have to conclude she was going for a point.
The ball instead fell short, deceived Westmeath's netminder Anna Weir and ended up in the net.
Minogue's second strike a few mintues later was the end product of arguably the best move of the game. Leah Devine, who had a fine game, Rachel O'Neill and Sophia Payne worked the ball to Minogue just inside the Westmeath half.
Minogue embarked on one of her trademark, jet-heeled runs before unleashing a thunderbolt from about 20 metres out. The ball flew low and past Weir who could do nothing about it. 2-7 to 0-2 up at the break it looked all over.
One of the changes Westmeath made was to bring on Amelia Shaw and it was a wonder she wasn't on earlier. She was a huge threat and she ended up with 1-4, the goal arriving in the closing stages when she drove home from close range from a Muireann Scally centre. Earliar Shaw mustered a point from a penalty, the player content to fire over instead of going for a goal.
Meath had some tremendous displays from the like of Devine, Maeve Clince, Ellen Burke and Cliodhna O'Riordan. The combined efforts of all the players involved helped to ensure Meath didn't endure a second-half collapse - unlike the previous week against the Kingdom.
SCORERS
Meath - Aoife Minogue 2-3 one free; Grace Coleman 0-6 four frees; Olivia O'Halloran 0-1; Aoibhin Lally 0-1, Abbye Donnelly 0-1; Niamh Daly 0-1.
Westmeath - Denise McGrath 1-4 three frees, one penalty; Una Leonard 0-1; Aisling McLoughlin 0-1.
TEAMS
Meath - Tara Murphy; Tracy King, Claire Coffey, Rachel O'Neill; Ellen Burke, Maeve Clince, Leah Devine; Clioidhna O'Riordan, Aoife Minogue; Aoibhin Lally, Grace Coleman, Olivia O'Halloran; Sophia Payne, Nadine Doyle, Emma Hanafin. Subs -Emma O'Connell for Doyle half-time, Niamh Daly for O'Connell 32 mins, Laura O'Neill for Devine 45m, Abbye Donnelly for Hanafin 52m, Nora Jean Linehan for Lally 59m, Susan Kealy for O'Riordan 60m.
Westmeath - Anna Weir; Megan Ennis, Jade McKeogh, Dearbhail McLoughlin; Emily McCabe, Muireann Scally, Karen Gaffney; Aoife O'Malley, Aoife Doherty; Una Leonard, Megan Dowdall, Sheila McGrath; Shannon Dalton, Aoife Boyle, Aisling McLoughlin. Subs - Maria Kelly for Leonard, Amelia Shaw for McLoughlin, Julie McLouglin for Ennis all 27 mins, Orlaith Craven for Scally 60m.
Referee - Brian Kearney (Kildare).