Our busy week in Ahane Camogie has been a very successful one! Our Under 14's won their Mackey Cup Final on Tuesday, our Under 16's won their Plate County Final on Thursday, and now our Senior's have made it three from three as they won their County Semi Final against Newcastle West this evening in the Bog Garden Rathkeale.

There was a sense of excitement and anticipation in the crowd as they waited for the game to start. Ahane and Newcastle West are no strangers to one another on the field of play and have produced some cracking games of camogie over the years, today's game was no different as both sets of players came out all guns blazing. Ahane got the first score of the game with Niamh Mulcahy scoring a free in the second minute. There was fierce battling going on around the field and girls were putting their bodies on the line for the game. Niamh scored her second free in the sixth minute to put Ahane two points up. Newcastle West scored in the eighth minute to get their scoring campaign going. Due to the work rate from both teams around the field the next score didn't come until the twelfth minute with a third point from Niamh from a free. The game was played at a high intensity all throughout the sixty plus minutes. Ahane got their fourth point in the 14th minute and then their fifth point in the 15th minute both coming from the stick of Niamh once again. Newcastle West added to their own tally of scores in the 20th minute. The defensive work rate from Ahane was immense, with them being led by Rose Collins at full back and Noreen Flanagan at centre back. Some excellent clearances and pin point accurate puck outs from Sile Moynihan made the forwards lives easier as they were getting good quality ball in to them. The first half ended on a score line of Ahane 0-8 Newcastle West 0-3.

The second half started much like the first and we weren't thirty seconds in when Niamh got on to a great ball from midfield and scored a great point. Newcastle West scored the next point putting it Ahane 0-9 Newcastle West 0-4. There was a serious clash of the ash and more than one hurley didn't survive the battle! Niamh went on to score four more points in the second half which brought her tally for the day to thirteen points. Some great performances from Sile, Niamh Power, Niamh Martin, Rose, Kate Herbert,Noreen Flanagan, and Sarah Crotty all in denfense made sure that Newcastle West never got an easy score. Ann Kennedy and Marguerita McCarthy in the middle of the field covered a serious amount of ground and hooked, hassled, and harried throughout the game. Aoife Quinn, Niamh, Aisling Herbert, Aine Reynolds, Orla Curtin, and Roisin O'Mara also had great games in the forward line, with some great interlinking play throughout the game. No team is just the starting fifteen and that was seen when substitutes Susie McGovern who is back from injury and it is great to see her back on the field of play, and Margaret Meskell came on in the second half and really added to the game. The game was not without drama as in the dying moments of injury time when Ahane were 2 points up, Newcastle West got a 20 meter free in front of goal, but Ahane stood tall and an amazing block from Niamh Mulcahy pushed the ball up and over the bar, meaning Ahane were up by a point when the ball was pucked out and most importantly when the referee Mike Flaherty, blew the final whistle. The final score was Ahane 0-13 to Newcastle West 0-12.

On behalf of Ahane camogie we would like to congratulate the girls on a great team performance and a great win. The girls are now in the County Final which will be played on October 14th in a venue and time to be confirmed. The girls will be going up against Granagh/Ballingarry in the final which is a repeat of last years final. Keep an eye on our facebook and twitter pages to get all the details of the final.