Roisin Black hails teammate Ailish O'Reilly as ‘one of Galway's most consistent players ever' after Tipp win

The Irish Sun

3 days ago

RÓISÍN Black hailed Ailish O'Reilly as the understated but most consistent force behind Galway's latest All-Ireland camogie push.
Black was part of a full-back line that gave up very little as Galway stretched to a
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O'Reilly scored four points against Tipperary to help secure a All-Ireland final spot
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The last time Galway lost an All-Ireland final they followed it up with a win the year after
But it was a veteran that took the player-of-the-match honours, and no one argued with that.
O'Reilly is in pursuit of a fourth All-Ireland medal, having scored a goal in the 2013 decider, two in 2019 and slotted a couple of points in 2021. The four-time All-Star from Oranmore/Maree got four points at the weekend.
Her pass to Niamh Mallon sent the Portaferry native away for a brilliant 39th-minute goal that gave the Tribeswomen the breathing space to see it out and set up a repeat of
Black said: 'She's my clubmate. 'I see her true colours every year.
'Everyone underestimates Ailish O'Reilly but she has a good 13 years' work with
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"Every year she turns up, probably one of the most consistent players Galway's ever had and was unbelievable today as always.'
Praise for her own role as part of that stifling defence was deflected.
Black countered: 'It comes from Sarah Healy in goals, all the way out. Our job is to deliver good ball to the forwards and they do a great job of keeping it up there.'
Indeed, the keeper showed the benefit of all her experience with some solid work between the posts after a mis-control of a poor shot from Karen Kennedy resulted in a Premier goal in the 26th minute.
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At that stage, Galway were cruising, 0-8 to 0-2 in front, but they were rocked on their heels for the remainder of the half, going in at the break only level, 0-9 to 1-6.
Black said: 'We wanted to get back into an All-Ireland final so that's job done.
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'Tipp got their purple patch in the second part of the first half. You just can never be complacent against a team like that and I suppose a small bit we were and they came back.
"But we've a lot of hard work done and we've girls coming off the bench there and they finished it off strong for us in the second half.'
Manager Cathal Murray loved what he saw from his players after that sticky patch.
After leading his side to a fifth All-Ireland decider having won two of the previous four, he added: 'We showed huge resilience.
"To put in a performance like that with players who weren't on the team last year but have really, really stepped up to the plate, that is massive for the group.
'Losing a final last year was really hard. That was the goal all year to get back there. We are not euphoric about getting there because we don't want to lose another one.
'We are there now so we want to win it. We were doing really well in the game, and they got a big bounce from the goal. We limited the damage against the breeze to four points after the goal.
'Last year, we were never going well.
'It was the first time we had come into a semi-final as underdogs in a while. Then the way we won it too, a point in the last minute (against Tipperary) . Here, we were on top for most of the game. It's a different feeling.'
SCORERS — Galway: C Dolan 0-6, 4f; A O'Reilly 0-4, N Mallon 1-2, M Dillon 0-3, C Kelly 0-2, S Rabbitte 0-1. Tipperary: G O'Brien 0-7f, K Kennedy 1-1, E Heffernan 0-1f, C Hennessy 0-1, J Kelly 0-1.