CORK?S dictatorship of ladies football continued yesterday as the Rebelettes showed no mercy to their neighbours at Croke Park.
Cork have now won SEVEN senior All-Irelands in the last EIGHT years.
They always looked in control against Kerry in front of 16,998 fans at GAA HQ.
The Leesiders led 0-10 to 0-3 at half-time against a Kingdom side which set up defensively in a bid to contain a team they had never beaten.
The only Championship game this Cork side have lost in the last eight years was a quarter-final defeat to Tyrone at Banagher in 2010.
And despite all of their success before and since, the memories of THAT game are still driving the panel.Manager Eamonn Ryan explained: ?We threw one away down in Banagher and that would be still grating. That would be like a pebble in our shoe and that motivates us to keep going.
?It is a great achievement but it wouldn?t be about just winning trophies.?
Of Ryan?s starting team yesterday, 11 have played a part in all seven of the recent All-Ireland wins, while Angela Walsh, who came off the bench, has also been involved.
Kerry ? with captain Bernie Breen bravely playing on with a suspected broken shoulder ? battled hard but were simply not good enough.
Geraldine O?Flynn was fantastic for Cork, attacking from wing-back and scoring two points.
Centre-forward Doireann O?Sullivan hit four from play while, defensively, captain Rena Buckley led the way from centre-back with Kerry never looking likely to get the goal they would have needed.
Kerry, who had lost the Munster final 3-12 to 2-9 to Cork, were guilty of conceding too many frees and dragging down their opponents.
They ended up shipping 32 frees to Cork?s 11.
The Kingdom started midfielder Lorraine Scanlon at full-forward in a bid to try and break Cork down with direct high ball to the edge of their square.
Over the course of the game Scanlon probably broke even with Cork full-back Brid Stack.
But all too often she found herself isolated, with no support.
Kerry?s best player, and indeed one of the best on the field, was wing-forward Sarah Houlihan.
Her weaving runs cut open Cork time and time again, with her pace and trickery making her almost unstoppable. Yet Kerry rarely had enough numbers in attack to make it count. Kerry needed everything to go right for them if they were to win. But the first bad break came early on when Breen suffered a suspected broken shoulder.
Incredibly, the Laune Rangers player STAYED on the field for the rest of the game ? despite not being able to raise her right arm above her head.
Kerry boss William O?Sullivan revealed: ?We knew things weren?t going right after the first five minutes or so.
?Bernie Breen broke her AC joint.
?It was her call to stay on.
?I suppose the hard line would have been to take her off the team.
?But that might have caused a collapse.
?She was an inspirational figure on the team so we left her on. To be honest, I thought she coped fairly well for the hour.? Breen embodied Kerry?s commitment and desire but they were coming up against one of the best ladies football teams of all time.
Still, Ryan admitted he was hugely apprehensive ahead of the game.
He revealed: ?It was difficult enough coming in as raging-hot favourites, even though we didn?t think we were.
?Everyone was saying we would win by this or that.
?The bookies? odds were astronomical and that put fierce pressure on us.
?I was never so nervous before a match in my life. I even lost all my notes.
?I had to bluff away before the match ? the players didn?t know what I was saying.?
It did not seem to have any impact on Cork though, as a brace of points by Valerie Mulcahy and another by O?Sullivan pushed them into an early three-point lead. Houlihan opened Kerry?s account with a free in the 10th minute, but by then the signs were already ominous for the Kingdom.
Scanlon added another point soon after, but Kerry would go until the final minute of the half before scoring their third point of the game.
It was Houlihan who got it, before Orlagh Farmer struck back to leave seven between the sides at the break.
Mulcahy added a free five minutes into the second half and, although she finished the game with 0-7, 6f, the Rockb?n player was often selfish in her decision-making, kicking wides when there were teammates in support.
Points by Louise N? Mhuircheartaigh and Patrice Dennehy did reduce the gap to six midway through the half.
But that was as close as Kerry got.
The Rebelettes turned the screw in the final 10 minutes to pull away for a nine-point win.
Ryan said: ?We never put the emphasis on medals. The emphasis is on playing and training and enjoying it. The players try to improve a little bit all the time.
?To put your finger on it, they love playing football and they like winning.
?If it was the other way around they could be in trouble.
?But their love of football transcends the desire to win the whole time, because they would be out there on nights that you wouldn?t put a dog out in.
?You never get a dopey excuse about missing training.?
CORK: E Harte; AM Walsh, B Stack, D O?Reilly; B Corkery 0-1, R Buckley, G O?Flynn 0-2; J Murphy, N Kelly; O Farmer 0-1, D O?Sullivan 0-4, C O?Sullivan; N Cleary 0-1, 1f, V Mulcahy 0-7, 7f, R N? Bhuachalla. Subs: O Finn for N? Bhuachalla 38mins; A Walsh for AM Walsh 38; L McMahon for Farmer 46; A Hutchings for Kelly 53; A Barrett for C O?Sullivan 57.
KERRY: E Murphy; C Lynch, A Desmond, A Lyons; J Brosnan, A Leonard, L Galvin; E Sherwood, B Breen; C Kelly, D Corridan, S Houlihan 0-3, 2f; M O?Connell, L Scanlon 0-2, L N? Mhuircheartaigh 0-1, 1f. Subs: P Dennehy 0-1 for Corridan 24; M Fitzgerald for Galvin 45; D Corridan for O?Connell 55; SJ Joy for Sherwood 59.
REFEREE: G Corrigan (Down).
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