REIGNING ALL-IRELAND SENIOR club champions Mourneabbey had three LGFA All-Stars in their forward line today as they kicked off their 2019 campaign.
Dublin star Noelle Healy made her first appearance for the Cork outfit as they cruised past Bride Rovers in their opening league encounter on home soil.
As reported by The42, the three-time All-Ireland champion’s transfer from St Brigid’s to Mourneabbey was rubber-stamped at a Cork county board meeting earlier this month after a change in location for work.
The 2017 Player of the Year’s release was approved in the capital in February, but needed to be confirmed in the Rebel county and that happened after a vote.
Healy, 28, balances her inter-county career with a demanding job as an anaesthetist and is working on Leeside while living in Mourneabbey at the moment.
She now joins the O’Sullivan sisters, Ciara and Doireann, in the Mourneabbey forward line, linking up with a star-studded team that finally tasted All-Ireland glory last December. All three scooped All-Stars in 2018, and as expected, contributed heavily on the scoresheet today.
By half-time, Mourneabbey had racked up an impressive scoring return of 6-12 in comparison to Bride Rovers’ three points.
The game finished 9-19 to 0-9, with 13 players who started last year’s All-Ireland club final lining out for the five in-a-row Cork and Munster champions.
While the aforementioned trio fired most of the goals, last year’s captain Bríd O’Sullivan and Ellie Jack also contributed handsomely while Maire O’Callaghan and Roisin O’Sullivan were excellent. That said, Bride Rovers battled gamely and never said die.
Just like Mourneabbey have done time and time again in the past.
Shane Ronayne’s side ended a long, long wait for national silverware after beating Dublin kingpins Foxrock-Cabinteely — who beat Healy’s home club St Brigid’s in the county final — in the decider.
Previously, they suffered three painful decider defeats (2014, 2015 and 2017) and a semi-final loss in 2016.
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