By JOHN FALLON
Galway’s Niamh Divilly said that helping TU Dublin to their historic AIG O’Connor Cup success was the perfect way to crown a glorious weekend.
Divilly was one of ten Kilkerrin-Clonberne players, including her sisters Olivia and Siobhán, who was named player of the year, selected on the AIB Club Team of the Year on Friday night, and then Niamh followed up by inspiring TU Dublin to their first ever AIG O’Connor Cup title when they defeated DCU Dóchas Éireann by 0-12 to 2-4 in the final on Saturday.
“A great weekend. We had ten girls up there last night and then obviously Siobhán getting player of the year was lovely as well. But this topped it off altogether,” said Niamh Divilly.
“I think winning the club All-Ireland is so nice. It’s so special to be with your family and your home friends, but this is so different. It’s an experience you’ll never get again playing with girls that you usually compete against. The likes of Ciara Smyth and Angela McGuigan, we have battles with our county teams. Coming together, it’s a different perspective on it.”
They became the eleventh college to win the AIG O’Connor Cup with Meath’s Ciara Smyth leading the way as they denied a DCU Dóchas Éireann side who were bidding to win a fourth title in a row.
“We’re delighted,”added Divilly. “It’s our first time getting to an O’Connor Cup final. We came up from Division Two four years ago and we’ve kind of just been knocking on the door since. We were never too far off teams, so it’s so nice to get over the line.”
It was a third defeat for DCU Dóchas Éireann in the finals which they hosted on Saturday with UCD defeating them by 2-7 to 1-9 in the AIG Giles Cup showdown, while ATU Sligo beat them by 5-11 to 1-11 in the AIG Lynch Cup decider which kicked off the day of finals.
UCD, beaten in the final last year, lifted the AIG Giles Cup for the first time thanks to a goal from Karrie Rudden in the dying moments of the final.
Kilkerrin-Clonberne duo Aisling and Aoibhinn Madden were part of the winning squad.
“It was everyone else the whole pitch, the whole way up,” said goalscorer Rudden. “I was just at the edge of the box, luckily. It’s great, I’m so happy.”
“I feel we had a lot of missed chances that we would have scored in training and in our previous matches, but the girls fought really hard and pulled it back,” she added.
ATU Sligo manager Liam Gilmartin was thrilled as Cavan’s Deirbhile Lynch led the way with 2-3 as the Lynch Cup headed back to the town for the first time in 29 years since Sligo RTC won it.
“We got a run on them in the first half and we got five or six of a cushion. We felt that we could keep that momentum going, plus the surface here was unbelievable. It actually suits us, we love this. That performance was in us. It just came out today.”
“I think we should be aiming to get back to the O’Connor Cup. I think we lose three of this team, so we’ll have a backbone of a team again,” he added.
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Results:
AIG O’Connor Cup final
TU Dublin 0-12 DCU Dóchas Éireann 2-4
AIG Giles Cup final
UCD 2-7 DCU Dóchas Éireann (2) 1-9
AIG Lynch Cup final
ATU Sligo 5-11 DCU Dóchas Éireann (4) 1-11
