Division 2
CORK WERE SINGING in the rain at the Coralstown Kinnegad grounds, producing a power-packed second half performance to win by 2-16 to 1-5 and lift the Littlewoods Ireland Camogie Leagues Division 2 title for a fifth time.
It was a disappointing capitulation by Derry, after competing well in the first half and only going in at the break trailing by 0-9 to 1-3.
Cork had caused Derry plenty of trouble in that initial period though despite playing into a strong wind and with their own defence restricting the Ulster side to just two points after the restart, the result was never really in doubt.
Rachel O’Shea scored six points to be named player of the match but she had strong opposition for the individual award, with defenders Lauren Callanan and Sarah Buckley in particular standing out.
It was a good boost for Leeside camogie, with the seniors having lost the Division 1 final a week ago. They were able to call upon three of the players who started that game against Kilkenny – Jennifer Barry, Niamh McCarthy and Linda Collins – and possessed an all-round depth that proved too much for Derry.
The persistent rain made it difficult for both sides but Cork laid the foundations for their victory in that opening half, as they used a sweeper between the two traditional defensive lines to cut off the avenue of supply to the Derry inside forwards.
It didn’t work immediately however, as after Collins and Karen Kielt exchanged early points, Mary Hegarty grabbed a long delivery on the edge of the square and blasted it to the Cork net.
Niamh McCarthy pointed for Cork but two on the trot fromHegarty and Kielt stretched the Derry lead to four inside eight minutes of the throw in.
Callanan and Buckley began to exert significant influence from half-back however and a brace of points from Maeve McCarthy, four from O’Shea and one more from Katelyn Hickey established that three-point lead at the interval.
Finola Neville and O’Shea stretched the advantage early in the second half but Áine McAllister replied with a brace to keep Derry in touch.
They wouldn’t score again though, while Cork always looked dangerous. Caroline Sugrue was introduced by Paudie Murray and she had an instant impact, grabbing a goal and a point.
The excellent Maeve McCarthy and O’Shea added to the tally before another sub, Sarah Fahy put the icing on the cake with an excellent goal.
Scorers for Cork - R O’Shea 0-6(3fs); M McCarthy 0-4; C Sugrue, S Fahy 1-1 each; N McCarthy, K Hickey, F Neville, L Homan 0-1 each
Scorers for Derry - M Hegarty 1-1; K Kielt (fs), A McAllister 0-2 each
Cork: A Lee, R Killeen, S Harrington, N Ní Chaoimh, L Lynch, S Buckley, L Callanan, F Neville, J Barry, K Hickey, K McCarthy, M McCarthy, N McCarthy, L Collins. Subs: C Sugrue for Collins (36), L Homan for K McCarthy (49), S Fahy for M McCarthy (49), M Buckley for Hickey (50), J Crowley for Barry (54), H Ryan for O’Shea (58), A Kelleher for Killeen (58), N O’Callaghan for Neville (59)
Derry: N McQuillan, R Bradley, C McAtamney, S Donaghy, J McGuckin, A Ní Chaiside, B Ní Chaiside, Á McAllister, K Kielt, A Devlin, G McNicholl, A Quinn, M Hegarty, A McCusker, D O’Kane. Subs: E Ní Chaiside for B Ní Chaiside (33), R Cassidy for Quinn (42), N McBride for Kielt (51), N Boylan for O’Kane (56)
Referee: J Dermody (Westmeath)
******
Division 3
Dublin came good in the second half to secure their first Littlewoods Ireland Camogie Leagues Division 3 title with an 0-12 to 0-7 win over a Roscommon side that just fell short for the second consecutive season.
The Rossies can take some inspiration from Dublin however, who lost three finals in succession from 2013 to 2015 after claiming Division 4 honours, and were beaten in last year’s semi-final before finally getting over the line this time around at Coralstown Kinnegad.
The teams had met in the Institute of Technology grounds in Blanchardstown in the middle of February, when Dublin prevailed by seven points to commence a campaign that has remained unblemished since.
Both sides have progressed since then though and while Dublin got off to a strong start in this, it was Roscommon who had the better of the opening period overall and led at the change of ends by 0-5 to 0-3.
A neat point from play in the first minute by Laoise Quinn got proceedings under way. Caragh Dawson added to Dublin’s tally four minutes later but Niamh Watson’s score settled Roscommon down and they were more than a match for the Metropolitans for the remainder of the half.
Minor star Shauna Fallon brought the sides level from a free and though Aoife Bugler restored Dublin’s advantage, it was momentary, as Roscommon shot the next three points to establish that two-point interval advantage.
Fallon equalised for the second time with a good score from play before the experienced Kelley Hopkins found the target from a brace of frees and it was the crew managed by Noel Finn and Noel Murphy that held the upper hand.
Their counterpart Shane Plowman and his mentors earned their corn during the break however and as well as making a change in personnel, with the introduction of Gráinne Power for Eimear O’Riordan, their instructions clearly had an impact as Dublin re-emerged with a significant increase in intensity.
They were level within two minutes, thanks to dead-eye shooting from Quinn and Dawson and though the scoring rate dropped, it was the Sky Blues that found it easier to hit the mark.
A pair from Quinn pulled them clear and though Fallon responded, Quinn and Róisin Drohan made put a goal between them.
Again, Fallon pointed for Roscommon but they only managed two scores in the latter period, while Dublin had a wider range of potential suppliers, particularly from play.
Plowman’s charges finished with a flourish as Dawson, Bugler (45) and Drohan plit the posts to ensure that it was their captain Emer Keenan that would be collecting the silverware.
Scorers for Dublin - L Quinn 0-5(4fs); C Dawson 0-3; A Bugler (1 45), R Drohan 0-2 each
Scorers for Roscommon - S Fallon 0-4(2fs); K Hopkins 0-2(fs); N Watson 0-1
Dublin: A Spillane, C Buchannan, L Walsh, E O’Flynn, E Barron, D Johnstone, G Free, E O’Riordan, R Drohan, R Baker, A Bugler, C Dawson, L Quinn, E Keenan, S Nolan. Subs: G Power for O’Riordan (ht), N Gleeson for Walsh (43), A Walsh for Baker (52)
Roscommon: C Connaughton, E McNally, E Lennon, M Tiernan, S Spillane, E Daly, J Beattie, R Fitzmaurice, L Fleming, N Watson, K Hopkins, R Brennan, S Fallon, F Connell, L Kenny. Sub: J Healy for Connell (11), C Whyte Lennon for Kenny (31), R Dolan for Lennon (43)
Referee: A O’Brien (Wexford)
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He was never going to be punished yet Chris foy doesn’t give enough injury time(according to whiskey nose) against spurs and he gets a league two game for the first time in years and united get Howard the coward at a ground where they lost last season. Yes your right the record needs to change
ABU people forgetting that Webb also chose to let go Tiote’s stamp on Cleverley after reviewing it with the RvP incident afterwards. The anti United stuff that people come out with is hilarious.
Get a life and change the record !!
Oliver Stone once said: “Paranoia is having all the facts”. Many of us die hard football fans know exactly what he means.
I’ve long held the view that something very fishy goes on in English football.
I’m not the most naturally trusting of guys anyways. When it comes to institutions, I’m downright skeptical of them. I have very little respect or trust in governments, police, and media or football institutions. It’s not me being paranoid either: week after week, I’m proven correct on my doubts about them (to any Liverpool fan the findings of the Hillsborough report came as absolutely no surprise).
When it comes to football, it’s not even lack of trust. It’s plain common sense.
In recent years, we’ve had a huge number of corruption scandals all across Europe. Several of them in Italy, the corrupt referee Hoyser in Germany, Fenerbahce being docked their title in Turkey, Spain’s second division scandals, Marseille a while ago in France, Porto in Portugal etc…
Of course, the one league where nothing ever gets proven to be dodgy is in England. The richest and most watched league in the world is, we are told, completely squeaky clean.
Leaving aside the sheer ridiculousness of that statement, ask yourself this: if corruption gets proven all across Europe, how is the most popular league in the world, with the biggest prize monies in football, whose clubs are owned by some of the richest people in the world, run by stakeholders that are the most powerful media moguls in the world, immune from this? With the amounts of money at stake, how has it managed to be so clean for so long?
To dismiss any talks of corruption in the premier league is to fall for 2 of the traits that characterize the English the most: a sheer egocentric belief that they are better than anyone else and their complete faith in the country’s institutions. To them, it’s entirely logical that that stuff goes on abroad where institutions are corrupt, but it’s impossible in England. Just like diving is a foreign disease and Uruguay is the epicenter of racism, unlike the multi cultural tolerance of middle England.
I share neither of those traits. By pure logic, when I see corruption in every facet of English life (MP’s expenses scandal, banking sector, the war on Iraq, Leveson enquiry, Hillsborough, The Guilford 4, The Birmingham 6 et all…) as well as entire European football, I ask why is it impossible as many deem, for it to be happening in English football too?
I have followed football since 1986. I have seen for years how Manchester United benefits from refereeing decisions. I don’t need an investigation to tell me this: it happens on a near weekly basis to the point where people are so immune to it, they laugh it off.I have seen the influence Alex Ferguson has on every facet of the English game. When his Darren son got fired as manager of Preston North End, I watched with bemusement as Ferguson immediately recalled his loan players from Deepdale. I then watched in horror as another club in the premier league, managed by Ferguson’s father’s friend Tony Pullis, also recalled their loan players from PNE.
The message was clear: Mess with Mr Ferguson or his children, and you will be punished.
And not just from Mr Ferguson either. By his friends in football.
Recently, ex referee Jeff Winter stated that he once sent Roy Keane off in a match. He was then criticized by Ferguson and not given a Manchester United game to referee for 2 years. He saw that as punishment as he said that “The FA is reticent to give Manchester United games to referees that Ferguson has criticized in the past”.Read that statement again. Ferguson criticizes referees that give decisions against his club. Most likely, these decisions happen in games Manchester United lose. The FA reacts to the criticism by not assigning said referees in future Manchester United games. Thus, the only referees assigned to United games are ones that Ferguson approves of.
The referees that have given decisions Ferguson deem to be incorrect against United, however, no longer referee their games (usually the most high profile ones). It’s a terrible indictment of sporting impartiality, justice and the way the game is run in England. This form of selective referee assignement led to the Juventus scandal in 2006.
Winter’s comments prompted me to do my own research. I focused on the referees that took charge of United 2 biggest high profile losses in the last decade or so.
Alain Wiley refereed United’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool in 2009. In that game, he gave both United and Liverpool penalties and sent off Nemanja Vidic. All 3 decisions were absolutely correct and Wiley was praised by Sky TV co-commentator Andy Gray for his performance. Not even Ferguson complained.Later that year, Wiley was given another United game to referee and despite sending off Kieran Richardson of Sunderland, Wiley was lambasted by Ferguson for being “fat and unfit”. The game ended 2-2.
That would be the end of Wiley’s refereeing career. Wiley, it says cryptically on his Wikipedia page, “agreed to retire” at the end of that season. Agreed with whom? No one knows.
Last season, Manchester City romped to a 6-1 win at Old Trafford, inflicting on their rivals their biggest embarrassment under Ferguson. The referee on that day was Mark Clattenburg. He sent Johnny Evans off in the second half for a clear professional foul.
There have been 34 Man United league games since that day. The number of times times Clattenburg has refereed them? Zero. Not a single one.
It seems that the FA, for whatever reason, doesn’t want Clattenburg to referee Man United games anymore. Some of us more paranoid folk may just wonder who’s behind that decision.
The FA has no hesitation to hand United games to Howard Webb though: he’s been the most used referee in 34 United games since the 6-1 defeat to City.
Webb’s history in Man United games are well known and documented. All I have to say on the matter is that more than 18% of the penalties he’s awarded in his ENTIRE premier league refereeing career have gone to Manchester United. Over a 9 year period, that’s a huge percentage.So in closing, let’s resume what we’ve discovered. We have an ex premier league referee who has openly stated he was not handed a Manchester United game for 2 years after sending off one of their players. We have an FA who, in said referee’s words, don’t hand Manchester United games to referees that the United manager has previously criticized.
We have a referee who took charge of a heavy United defeat and “agreed to retire” a year later after being called unfit by Alex Ferguson. We have another referee who hasn’t been handed a United game to officiate since he reffed a heavy United defeat 34 league games ago.
Meanwhile, the most used official in United games in that time is the man who has handed 18% of his entire career penalty awards to Ferguson’s team.
Factor in the fact that Manchester United CEO is ON THE BOARD OF the English FA, Alex Ferguson is a knight of the realm with political connections that go a lot deeper than football (just read Allistair Campbell’s diaries if you don’t believe me), and the evidence in the Darren Ferguson sacking that clubs that cross Ferguson get punished by his friends, and you have all the tools there for someone more investigative than me to really delve into.
But yet, nothing happens. Year on year, I watch as not a single journalist utters a peep on the subject. I watch as decision after decision goes United’s way and people in the UK, so much better than everyone else and trusting of their institutions remember, brush them off with insouciance.
In Italy, there would have been phone tap investigations a long time ago. In “so much cleaner than everywhere else” England, we’re paranoid.
Why is that?
Well, when you look at who runs the sport in the country, you understand a bit more. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky live off the premier league. So do his other publications like the Sun. The English media’s last priority is going to investigate and damage one of their biggest cash cows.
Please follow me on twitter, new handle: http://www.twitter.com/DimmyBad and check out the follow up post to this article, http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/10/corruption-and-influence-peddling-in-the-english-game.html
Oliver Stone once said: “Paranoia is having all the facts”. Many of us die hard football fans know exactly what he means.
I’ve long held the view that something very fishy goes on in English football.
I’m not the most naturally trusting of guys anyways. When it comes to institutions, I’m downright skeptical of them. I have very little respect or trust in governments, police, and media or football institutions. It’s not me being paranoid either: week after week, I’m proven correct on my doubts about them (to any Liverpool fan the findings of the Hillsborough report came as absolutely no surprise).
When it comes to football, it’s not even lack of trust. It’s plain common sense.
In recent years, we’ve had a huge number of corruption scandals all across Europe. Several of them in Italy, the corrupt referee Hoyser in Germany, Fenerbahce being docked their title in Turkey, Spain’s second division scandals, Marseille a while ago in France, Porto in Portugal etc…
Of course, the one league where nothing ever gets proven to be dodgy is in England. The richest and most watched league in the world is, we are told, completely squeaky clean.
Leaving aside the sheer ridiculousness of that statement, ask yourself this: if corruption gets proven all across Europe, how is the most popular league in the world, with the biggest prize monies in football, whose clubs are owned by some of the richest people in the world, run by stakeholders that are the most powerful media moguls in the world, immune from this? With the amounts of money at stake, how has it managed to be so clean for so long?
To dismiss any talks of corruption in the premier league is to fall for 2 of the traits that characterize the English the most: a sheer egocentric belief that they are better than anyone else and their complete faith in the country’s institutions. To them, it’s entirely logical that that stuff goes on abroad where institutions are corrupt, but it’s impossible in England. Just like diving is a foreign disease and Uruguay is the epicenter of racism, unlike the multi cultural tolerance of middle England.
I share neither of those traits. By pure logic, when I see corruption in every facet of English life (MP’s expenses scandal, banking sector, the war on Iraq, Leveson enquiry, Hillsborough, The Guilford 4, The Birmingham 6 et all…) as well as entire European football, I ask why is it impossible as many deem, for it to be happening in English football too?
I have followed football since 1986. I have seen for years how Manchester United benefits from refereeing decisions. I don’t need an investigation to tell me this: it happens on a near weekly basis to the point where people are so immune to it, they laugh it off.
I have seen the influence Alex Ferguson has on every facet of the English game. When his Darren son got fired as manager of Preston North End, I watched with bemusement as Ferguson immediately recalled his loan players from Deepdale. I then watched in horror as another club in the premier league, managed by Ferguson’s father’s friend Tony Pullis, also recalled their loan players from PNE.
The message was clear: Mess with Mr Ferguson or his children, and you will be punished.
And not just from Mr Ferguson either. By his friends in football.
Recently, ex referee Jeff Winter stated that he once sent Roy Keane off in a match. He was then criticized by Ferguson and not given a Manchester United game to referee for 2 years. He saw that as punishment as he said that “The FA is reticent to give Manchester United games to referees that Ferguson has criticized in the past”.
Read that statement again. Ferguson criticizes referees that give decisions against his club. Most likely, these decisions happen in games Manchester United lose. The FA reacts to the criticism by not assigning said referees in future Manchester United games. Thus, the only referees assigned to United games are ones that Ferguson approves of.
The referees that have given decisions Ferguson deem to be incorrect against United, however, no longer referee their games (usually the most high profile ones). It’s a terrible indictment of sporting impartiality, justice and the way the game is run in England. This form of selective referee assignement led to the Juventus scandal in 2006.
Winter’s comments prompted me to do my own research. I focused on the referees that took charge of United 2 biggest high profile losses in the last decade or so.
Alain Wiley refereed United’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool in 2009. In that game, he gave both United and Liverpool penalties and sent off Nemanja Vidic. All 3 decisions were absolutely correct and Wiley was praised by Sky TV co-commentator Andy Gray for his performance. Not even Ferguson complained.
Later that year, Wiley was given another United game to referee and despite sending off Kieran Richardson of Sunderland, Wiley was lambasted by Ferguson for being “fat and unfit”. The game ended 2-2.
That would be the end of Wiley’s refereeing career. Wiley, it says cryptically on his Wikipedia page, “agreed to retire” at the end of that season. Agreed with whom? No one knows.
Last season, Manchester City romped to a 6-1 win at Old Trafford, inflicting on their rivals their biggest embarrassment under Ferguson. The referee on that day was Mark Clattenburg. He sent Johnny Evans off in the second half for a clear professional foul.
There have been 34 Man United league games since that day. The number of times times Clattenburg has refereed them? Zero. Not a single one.
It seems that the FA, for whatever reason, doesn’t want Clattenburg to referee Man United games anymore. Some of us more paranoid folk may just wonder who’s behind that decision.
The FA has no hesitation to hand United games to Howard Webb though: he’s been the most used referee in 34 United games since the 6-1 defeat to City.
Webb’s history in Man United games are well known and documented. All I have to say on the matter is that more than 18% of the penalties he’s awarded in his ENTIRE premier league refereeing career have gone to Manchester United. Over a 9 year period, that’s a huge percentage.
So in closing, let’s resume what we’ve discovered. We have an ex premier league referee who has openly stated he was not handed a Manchester United game for 2 years after sending off one of their players. We have an FA who, in said referee’s words, don’t hand Manchester United games to referees that the United manager has previously criticized.
We have a referee who took charge of a heavy United defeat and “agreed to retire” a year later after being called unfit by Alex Ferguson. We have another referee who hasn’t been handed a United game to officiate since he reffed a heavy United defeat 34 league games ago.
Meanwhile, the most used official in United games in that time is the man who has handed 18% of his entire career penalty awards to Ferguson’s team.
Factor in the fact that Manchester United CEO is ON THE BOARD OF the English FA, Alex Ferguson is a knight of the realm with political connections that go a lot deeper than football (just read Allistair Campbell’s diaries if you don’t believe me), and the evidence in the Darren Ferguson sacking that clubs that cross Ferguson get punished by his friends, and you have all the tools there for someone more investigative than me to really delve into.
But yet, nothing happens. Year on year, I watch as not a single journalist utters a peep on the subject. I watch as decision after decision goes United’s way and people in the UK, so much better than everyone else and trusting of their institutions remember, brush them off with insouciance.
In Italy, there would have been phone tap investigations a long time ago. In “so much cleaner than everywhere else” England, we’re paranoid.
Why is that?
Well, when you look at who runs the sport in the country, you understand a bit more. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky live off the premier league. So do his other publications like the Sun. The English media’s last priority is going to investigate and damage one of their biggest cash cows.
Imagine the hit to the revenue streams of the media and clubs if corruption is proved in the premier league? The richest league in the world, so carefully and beautifully marketed across the world, would suffer a huge blow. The effects an investigation would have on Manchester United, the cash cow’s biggest cash cow, would also be devastating.
So it’s all swept under the tabled and every refereeing decision shrugged off. “They even themselves out” we’re told by journalists who get banned from United press conferences for asking a question about team selection.
God knows what would happen to them if they investigate United’s behind the scenes dealings.
Maybe, like Preston, they’ll learn that if you cross Man United, all of football will turn their backs on you too…
Oliver stone has also been know to do some mighty powerful drugs, a few things on your rant, Webb has given united 18% of his overall penalties because he has refed far more united matches than Bolton or WBA or villa matches, why? Because the best refs are used for the big games and united tend to play in some of those, also David gill is a member of the fa board which he was elected too by the chairmen of all the premier league teams including Liverpool, David dean of arsneal was the previous member of the board it’s well rotated, as for the influence of sir Alex well it’s not much different to how the Liverpool manager of the late 70s and 80s were making there voice heard, just look after yourselfs for once ye have a great manager who can bring ye back to the top but be worried about your owner he is letting the red sox fall apart and I’d say if u don’t get rid of him then ye are going nowhere,
Also I completely agree that there is corruption going on in the English league, I don’t think it’s match fixing more Likely it’s like rangers and double contracts, under the table payments to players, the players are the most corrupt thing in English football
Gavin, I’d like to offer you two things, sincere thanks for curing my insomnia last night and a tin hat and a place in a darkened room with Jim Corr, birds of a feather and all that.
Gavin, you really need to get out more, you keep pulling the ‘David Gill is on the FA board’ thread. You don’t however acknowledge that he was voted on by the premier league chairmen as the premier leagues representative on the FA board. You don’t acknowledge that David former Arsenal chairman held the same position previously, you just scream conspiracy.
Howard Webb is the highest profile referee in England, he has referreed a World Cup final, he gets the majority of the televised games. Manchester United are the highest profile team in England, by far the most televised, it stands to reason he will referee them more often. You say he has awarded them more penalties, United are usually the more dominant side on games, therefore have more shouts for penalties, the balance of probability dictates the will get more than lesser sides, Liverpool for example.
I realise your bias will not allow you to thick rreasonably, this rant is for the more open minded readers of this page.
Webb saw it and chose not to act, the FA cannot intervene in that under their own rules. Also, if brushing someone with the back of your hand is elbowing then I’m in dire need of new anatomy lessons. Is a joke of a controversy, if he played for any other club it wouldn’t have even been raised by the media and they would have wrote a proper story about the scandal of Tiote and Huth getting away with their stamps
He not generally a dirty player so that’s probably why he got away with it, but that doesn’t make it right either.
Good old urd chair man on the fa board working his magic there and the ref as well Howard Webb biggest united fan going
Shut up Gavin.
What about the penalty Newcastle got at old trafford last season or the corner that led to wigans goal should have been a united kick out when Wigan beat united last season united were also denied a clear penalty in the recent game against spurs all the top teams get dodgy designs Liverpool got plenty of them at anfield in the 70s and 80s if Liverpool were good enough in front of goal they would not be depending on penalties to score are you sure you are a Liverpool fan because you seem to be obsessed with Manchester United and their manager
Gavin u really are a muppet of the highest order
Change your mind Gavin.
Wow Gavin. Just wow.
Thank you
typical manure fan nothing worth saying say nothing at all
As I said, shut up Gavin.
Gavin if it’s so corrupted and the Refs are so Pro united and the Fergie rules the roost why do you you bother to watch it week in week out then !!!!
Typical united fan not one of u between about the six of u on here have the capacity to put an argument for utd and their players and manager all u can resort to is name calling god love yas
Coming from the excuse that refers to a club by a reference to a nasty song about a tragedy I take that as a compliment.
And mine !!
Why is that because I put a comment up not one comment has been put up to change my mind of what I put
Read my comment no read mine very clever well done
read my last comment
Read my last comment