Cotter on song as Crokes ease into first women's final

Kilmacud Crokes 5-11 Castleisland Desmonds 1-5

Niamh Cotter struck an excellent haul of 2-4 at Pairc de Burca as Kilmacud Crokes reached their first AIB All-Ireland senior club championship decider with an impressive victory over Castleisland Desmonds.

Amy Conroy, Michelle Davoren and Mia Jennings were also amongst the goals on a day when Crokes overcame a brace of semi-final defeats in the past two seasons to face the winners of tomorrow's clash between defending champions Kilkerrin-Clonberne and Clann Eireann in this year’s final at Croke Park on December 14.

Playing on their home patch, the Stillorgan club stormed five points clear in the early exchanges after inter-county stars Ailbhe Davoren (Galway) and Lauren Magee (Dublin) kicked points either side of corner-forward Conroy clinically bagged the first goal of the game in the eighth-minute.

This threw down the gauntlet to Castleisland – who were captained by former Ireland women’s rugby international Ciara O’Sullivan (née Griffin) – but the Kerry outfit finally came to life when full-forward Julia Curtin fired home an excellent goal on 10 minutes.

Although their Dublin counterparts responded to this effort with a well-worked point by Michelle Davoren, Leah Griffin was on hand to raise a white flag for two-time All-Ireland senior champions Castleisland at the opposite end.

Aisling Leonard also found the range for the visitors, but with Grace Kós and Cotter (two) firing over in the closing stages of the opening period, Crokes brought a 1-6 to 1-2 cushion into the interval.

Even though Castleisland made a bright start to the second half with a point from Andrea Murphy, Crokes turned on the style for the remainder of the third-quarter.

When the Metropolitan women were