{"id":166077,"date":"2025-11-29T13:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/166077\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T13:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:58:08","slug":"irish-trio-taste-grand-final-success-with-kangaroos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/166077\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish trio taste Grand Final success with Kangaroos"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne Kangaroos 56-16 Brisbane Lions<\/p>\n

There was strong Irish representation among the victorious North Melbourne Kangaroos side that became the AFLW’s first back-to-back champions with a 56-16 Grand Final win over the Brisbane Lions.<\/p>\n

The Roos won their 27th straight game, completing an unbeaten season with Cork\u2019s Erika O\u2019Shea, Fermanagh’s Blaith\u00edn Bogue and Meath star Vikki Wall all claiming silverware in front of a capacity crowd of 12,741 at IKON Park, while Offaly’s Amy Gavin Mangan was included on the squad’s emergency list.<\/p>\n

There was disappointment however for Dublin\u2019s Jennifer Dunne, Tipperary’s Orla O’Dwyer and Neasa Dooley from Kildare as Brisbane\u2019s challenge faded badly in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

In the third straight Grand Final between the two sides, it was the Lions that began brightly with Jasmine Ferguson slotting over the opening goal before Eilish Sheerin responded immediately.<\/p>\n

An intercept by former Cork footballer O’Shea, who signed a one-year contract extension on the eve of the final and was making her 50th AFLW appearance on the night, sparked a swift attack from half-back which was finished off by Bella Eddey for North Melbourne’s second major.<\/p>\n

\"Erika
\nErika O’Shea, left, challenges Ruby Svarc of the Lions for possession in the Grand Final<\/p>\n

The second quarter saw the Roos take control with Kate Shierlaw, Jean Bruton and another from Sheerin pushing them into a 22-point advantage at the interval.<\/p>\n

All-Australian forward Bogue<\/a> was well held on the night by Nat Grider, but North Melbourne simply had too many options.<\/p>\n

Ash Riddell led the possession count with 39 touches, superstar captain Jas Garner kicked the insurance goal in the last quarter with midfielder Jenna Bruton kicking a game-high three goals.<\/p>\n

In all, 39 Irish women were contracted to AFLW clubs this season with the 21-strong All-Australian Team comprising of five Irish; the aforementioned Dunne and Bogue, as well Dayna Finn (Carlton Blues), Aine McDonagh (Hawthorn) and Niamh McLaughlin (Gold Coast Suns).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne Kangaroos 56-16 Brisbane Lions There was strong Irish representation among the victorious North Melbourne Kangaroos side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-166077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}