All Ireland 7's glory for Burgess/Duharra and Portroe

Tipperary might not have been involved in All Ireland Camogie Final day at Croke Park, however the clubs of Burgess/Duharra and Portroe made their mark by winning the All Ireland Senior and Junior 7's titles on Saturday at Kilmacud Crokes.

For Burgess/Duharra, they successfully defended their title to excellent performances through the day, culminating in a final win over De La Salle from Waterford.

Earlier in the group stage, Burgess/Duharra beat Skerries Harps, St Ibar's (Cork) and Eglish from Tyrone to top their group and qualify for a quarter final against Mullinavat of Kilkenny where again they emerged victorious.

This set them up for a semi-final against Tipperary rivals Clonoulty/Rossmore. Again the girls show their resilience and gained a good win by nine points. This set up a final against a Waterford team who had beaten Drom & Inch in their semi-final by just a point.

However, Burgess'Duharra showed their dominance by winning 7-9 to 3-6.

Gemma Grace captained the side while Amy Kennedy was named player of the tournament.

Burgess/Duharra panel: Ciara Holohan, Gemma Grace, Aisling Cremin, Caoimhe Maher, Ruth Barry, Ciara McKeogh, Jenny Grace, Ciardha Maher, Tara Kennedy, Amy Kennedy.

 

Portroe have a rich tradition when it comes to 7's in the men's game and the ladies of the club are now creating their own after winning the Junior 7's title at the All Ireland 7's.

Based in St Olaf’s for the early rounds, Port contested the Plate competition. Their first game was against Kilmacud Croke 'B' and the girls got off to a blistering start winning 9-5 to 1-2. However, this game was marred by the loss of Searlait Quinn to a serious knee injury in the opening minutes.

Not only missing a key player, Portroe were now down to only nine players for the remainder of the tournament as the moved on to game 2 against Feakle/Killanaena from Clare where Port won 7-5 to 2-1.

Inniskeen of Monaghan, a team who eliminated Port in 2015 and 2016 were dispatched 13-4 to 0-4 in round 3 as Portroe finished top of the group and set up a semi-final against Ahogill from Antrim in what proved to be the game of the tournament.

Ahogill stormed into the lead and went in at the break leading 3-1 to 2-1. Still trailing in the closing stages, Portroe rallied to win 5-5 to 5-3.

It meant Portroe were back in the All-Ireland 7's Plate Final for the first time since their only other final appearance in 2014 with St Sinchill's of Offaly their our final opponents.

The first half was tense and the Offaly side took a one point lead into the break. However, Leanne Creame and Leila Madden, who would score 33 goals between them in the tournament, contributed four between them final as they came from behind to win 4-6 to 3-4. Captain's Elaine Reidy and Ciara Gleeson accepted the plate from Camogie Association President Kathleen Woods.

Portroe panel: Searlait Quinn, Ciara Byrne, Aisling Sheedy, Geraldine O’Halloran, Ciara Gleeson, Leah McKeogh, Elaine Reidy, Niamh Bray, Leanne Creamer and Leila Madden. Management: Liam Sheedy, James Seymour, Willie Gleeson, Ciara McKeogh and Anthony Freeman