Winners Cork (18th win) Runners-up Galway Manager Tony Ward | Captain Linda Mellerick Captain Martina Harkin | |
Dates 3 June — 7 September 1997 | ||
The 1997 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship—known as the Bórd na Gaeilge All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship for sponsorship reasons—was the high point of the 1997 season. The championship was won by Cork who defeated Galway by a four-point margin in the final. The match drew an attendance of 10,212, then the second highest in the history of camogie.
Contents
Semi-finals
The 22-year-old Sharon Glynn scored 2-12 in the semi-final including a 56th-minute goal just as Kilkenny were clawing their way back in to the game in the semi-final at Loughrea. Wexford were outplayed by Cork in the second semi-final at Páirc Uí Rínn.
Final
Angela Downey described the final as a slow-paced match and a poor game, but Cork deserved to win. Although Lynn Dunlea stretched Cork's lead to double scores, 0-14 to 1-4, almost 20 minutes into the second half the game had an unexpectedly exciting finish with Therese Maher being denied a match-saving goal by the Cork goalkeeper Cora Keohane. Pat Roche wrote in the Irish Times:
Weathering a storm of Galway onslaughts in the closing 10 minutes had been an achievement in itself. Avenging last year's defeat by Galway was sheer joy for the team - and for the supporters it was a delight to watch the skills of goalkeeper Cora Keohane, defenders Denise Cronin and Sandie Fitzgibbon, garnished by the delicate scoring touches of Lynn Dunlea, The timing of her scores in the second half was as crucial as the points themselves, as they staved off a threatened Galway storm. The best example of this came in the seventh minute of the second half after Denise Gilligan smashed home Galway's first goal, leaving only three points between the sides. Dunlea added a second to take the good out of that Galway goal and was on the mark again inside the last five minutes when the defiant Galway women got the deficit down to four points with a goal from substitute Veronica Curtin.
Galway manager Tony Ward said:
We threw it away in the first half. We have no excuses, we never played as well as we can."It's a double disappointment, I suppose, to lose two All-Irelands back to back. Still, I don't think anybody can say that there was too much between the teams out there. That extra bit of experience and luck probably saw them through, but we gave them a good match all the same.