Leinster Senior Championship Semi Final

Dublin V Kilkenny

Dublin started the game with the aid of a decent breeze at their backs. Dublin opened the scoring in the first minute with a point from an Aoife McKearney free. However, Kilkenny hit straight back with a goal. The Dublin defence were slow to react to a speculative ball into their box which allowed enough time for the Kilkenny forwards to drive a ground strike past the isolated Dublin goalie. 

Sinead Wylde pointed for Dublin but in the 6th minute another dropping ball into the Dublin box from a free was allowed to bounce in the small square which is astro turf. The speed of the bounce deceived everyone and found the back of the net for a very easy/preventable goal. Dublin 2pts Kilkenny 2-01. Further bad news was to quickly follow for Dublin when Sarah Power was issued with 2 consecutive yellow cards. The first was for persistent fouling while the second was for not following the referee’s instructions when told to remove jewellery. This presented Dublin with a serious mountain to climb after 10 minutes as Kilkenny pointed from the resulting free. Finally after 13 minutes there was some good news for Dublin as Dublin’s Aisling Maher grabbed a very important goal with a determined run on the Dublin right wing before firing the ball low and hard into the far corner of the Kilkenny net.

This brought the crowd alive but Kilkenny were also goal hungry and soon after registered their 3rd goal of the half. Things were looking ominous for Dublin as low balls into the Kilkenny forwards seemed to be a rehearsed plan and was paying dividends. In addition Sinead Wylde for Dublin also received a yellow for not removing all jewellery. As we entered the last 10 minutes of the half, Dublin repaired some of the damage with 2 points from 2 frees. One from Aoife McKearney and the next from Aisling Maher. Final score of the half was a point from Aisling Gannon.

Half Time score: Dublin 1-06 to 3-04. 

While the scoreline was one discussion point amongst the crowd the other topic that was debated was that the referee had issued Dublin with 2 yellow cards despite warning all players before the game started that all jewellery was to be removed. At half time Dublin made 2 significant changes: Aisling O’Neill (24) replaced Emma Moran in full forward while Niamh Comerford replaced Kerrie Finnegan. Between the 31-34 minutes Kilkenny scored 1-02 before Maher registered the first point of the half for Dublin. Aoife McKearney pointed for Dublin before she was replaced with 20 minutes to go by Jennifer Moore. At the same time Sibéal Cherry was replaced by Aoife Higgins.

Jennifer Moore was working hard in defence for Dublin until she came to the attention of the referee for wearing facial jewellery. To the crowds dismay she was sent to the sideline to remove the jewellery. As a result Dublin were now down to 13 active players on the pitch for a few minutes. 

Dublin were working so hard across the pitch and showing great determination despite being a player down on a hot afternoon. On the 42nd minute a point from Aisling Maher was followed by a lovely point from Sinead Wylde from the right wing. Then joy for Dublin as with 10 minutes left a goal from Grace O’Shea reduced the gap to 5pts. 

Sadly despite trojan work by the Dublin players, many of whom were running on empty, they were only able to score twice more, both of which came from Aisling Maher. Final score Dublin 2-12 Kilkenny 4-11 who go on to meet Wexford in the 2025 Leinster Final. 

For Dublin this means a 3 week break before the start of the Glen Dimplex All Ireland series  on May 24th with an away fixture to Galway. This truly was an eventful afternoon which started with a very entertaining Intermediate semi final between Dublin and Carlow. Carlow carved out a 2 point win.