Orchard Camogs possess too much firepower

Tyrone 1-7 Armagh  3-19

ARMAGH had too much attacking power for the Tyrone senior camogs in Saturday afternoon’s All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship group stage clash at a rain-sodden Healy Park.

This was always likely to be a testing encounter for the Red Hands given the quality of their opposition – Armagh recently brought Derry to extra-time in an Ulster Senior Championship semi-final, for instance – and as it transpired, the main difference between the two teams was the ease with which the Orchard County got their scores.

Tyrone had their fair share of possession over the hour and there were strong personal displays from quite a number of players, but the inside forward line struggled to find space against their tenacious markers, whereas it was a different story down the other end of the pitch with Sinead Quinn, Rachel Merry and Eimear McGeary all scoring heavily on the day.

The Orchard girls started as they meant to go on, running up a 1-2 to no score lead in the opening five minutes, points by Merry and Megan O’Callaghan followed up by an unforgiving finish to the net by their powerful midfield player Ciara Hill.

They added another point via Merry, her second free of the day, though that preceded Tyrone’s most fruitful spell of the afternoon, Aisling Hagan and Aine Cunningham nailing four frees in the space of 15 minutes. In between times, there were further classy points from Armagh’s Quinn and McGeary.

Tyrone had done well to prevent the dam from bursting with strong pressure applied in the engine room from the likes of Hagan and Aoife McDonald, but Armagh finished the half with a fluorish – the excellent Quinn adding a goal and a point in quick succession before the final point of the half from Merry.

That gave Armagh a 2-9 to 0-4 lead at the interval and it was obviously a long way back for Tyrone.

Armagh dominated the opening exchanges in the second-half, compounding an already sizeable advantage with quickfire points from their usual suspects – Merry, Quinn and McGeary.

Tyrone were battling hard with Beth Jones’ distribution an impressive fact of their play, and a strong run from Grainne McDonald culminated in a ‘45’ which was converted by Aine Cunningham.

The Armagh full-back line was on top for much of the contest, but they did concede a goal when Lauren Fitzpatrick was on hand to pounce after an enterprising long ball forwards.

The Orchard County were still comfortable on the scoreboard and kept the show on the road with points from Merry, Quinn, Niamh Forker and sub Tierna Maxwell, who also weighed in with their third goal of the afternoon late in proceedings.

With the rain lashing down, Tyrone got their only points from play of the day from corner-back Nicola McKiver and sub Roisin O’Neill McKee, but anything the Red Hands could do was essentially negated with Armagh finishing their day’s work with a healthy tally of 3-19 thanks to late points from Merry and Fiadhna Loughran.

Scorers

Tyrone: Aine Cunnnigham (0-3, 2f, 1 45), Aisling Hagan (0-2f), Nicola McKiver and Roisin O’Neill McKee (0-1 each)

Armagh: Sinead Quinn (2-4), Rachel Merry (0-7, 0-3f), Eimear McGeary (0-4), Tierna Maxwell (1-1), Megan O’Callaghan, Ciara Hill and Niamh Forker (0-1 each)

Teams

Tyrone: Eimear Colton, Mairead Donnelly, Grainne Cassidy, Nicola McKiver, Beth Jones, Meaghan Clarke, Aoife McDonald, Reagan Fay, Rachel O’Neill, Aine Cunningham, Grainne McDonald, Aisling Hagan, Grainne Rafferty, Lauren Fitzgerald, Bronagh Moohan. Subs: Mollie O’Hanlon for Donnelly, Catherine Moohan for Fitzgerald, Roisin O’Neill McKee for Hagan, Roise Kerr for McDonald

Armagh: Ciarrai Devlin, Meabh O’Hare, Gemma McCann, Lucie Loughran, Michelle McCone, Alanna McEntee, Eimear Hayes, Grace Gaffney, Ciara Hill, Megan O’Callaghan, Katie Convie, Niamh Forker, Eimear McGeary, Sinead Quinn, Rachel Merry. Subs: Tierna Maxwell for Convie, Fiadhna Loughran for Hill

Referee: Ciaran Groome