by Kevin Egan
Neither Clare nor Limerick went into their crucial local derby on Saturday aiming for a draw, but after Caoimhe Costelloe’s late free ensured a 1-9 to 0-12 draw between the two Shannonside rivals in Ennis, they remain very much in the hunt for a place in the quarter-finals of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship.
At present Clare lie in second behind Cork, who had the weekend off. They are level on points with Limerick but hold a 32-point advantage on score difference. Limerick have played a game more and lost by 38 points to the Rebels, who Clare have to play yet. Both teams still have to take on Tipperary, who are hot on their heels in fourth and also have a game on hand on Limerick.
“We are alive, it’s in our own hands,” said Clare manager John Carmody after the game.
“It is probably going to go down to scoring difference now, all to play for, so there is no doom and gloom.”
Clare had the wind in the first half but briefly fell four points behind when Laura Southern scored the only goal of the game for the Treaty County. Carmody’s players were much improved after half-time, with Ellen Casey, Ziyan Spillane, and captain Áine O’Loughlin all impressing, but the manager was disappointed that much like their league final defeat to Antrim, they failed to use the breeze well.
“We made a hero of the sweeper in the first 20 minutes, and we lost the battle in the middle of the field. We trained for the sweeper but the Limerick middle eight aren’t going to collapse and let you ping the ball around the place.
“We moved the ball better in the second half but we just didn’t put the ball over the bar enough. Twelve points isn’t going to win you games at this level and the reality is we should have come away with 15 or 16 points.”
The other game in Group 1 took place in Wexford Park, where Karen Kennedy had the ball in the Wexford net with barely 15 seconds played, and Tipperary didn’t let up from there, powering ahead to win by 7-18 to 0-7.
Kennedy added a second goal, Grace O’Brien racked up an incredible 3-10 (3-2 from play), while Róisin Howard and Jean Kelly also raised green flags for Denis Kelly’s side. Mairéad Eviston was centre back for Tipperary, and she said that putting their poor showing against Cork behind them – they lost by 18 points at The Ragg – was a huge motivation for the group during the week.
“We’re much happier than we were last week, we were bitterly disappointed with that performance, so we put our heads down and had the hard conversations,” Eviston admitted. “Ruthless is what we wanted to be, and I think we were that for the full 60 minutes.”
Aside from Chloe Cashe’s three frees, just two Wexford players got on the scoresheet as the Tipperary defence was rock solid throughout. Eviston herself showed no signs of the hectic week she had come through, having had some important family matters to attend to a few days prior.
“It was a quick turnaround, my sister got married there on Thursday so we’d a brilliant week! But I love playing camogie, I was delighted to be down in Wexford here today and even happier with the result.”
Aisling O’Neill about to score a goal for Dublin (Photos: INPHO/James Lawlor)
In Group 2, the big game of the day was in Parnell Park, and Kilkenny also had atonement on their minds after they put in an below par display against Waterford a week ago.
The Cats were transformed, ousting Dublin by 1-19 to 1-14, with Aoife Prendergast (main photo) scoring 1-11. Skipper, Katie Power was retained in the number six jersey she wore last week and she had a crucial battle with Dublin attacker Sinéad Wylde, eventually outscoring her direct opponent by 0-2 to 0-1 in what was a significant mini-battle for the two sides.
“We were wicked disappointed after the last day, we were just disappointed in our own performance. It wasn’t a true reflection of ourselves,” said Power afterwards.
“That’s not taking anything from Waterford, they were unreal, but we didn’t do ourselves any favours in terms of what we want to pride ourselves on.”
A home game in a fortnight against Galway is likely to be a real test of where the ceiling is for a Kilkenny panel that has undergone much chance since beating Cork in the 2022 All-Ireland final.
“We are evolving, it is an inexperienced panel. We haven’t been in the All-Ireland semi-finals in two years. That’s a massive thing for this team, particularly since the semi-finals are in Nowlan Park.
“We are under no illusions, we still have to come out of the group and that’s the biggest challenge for us at the moment. We have one game left and it is in our own hands what happens. Galway are a different animal altogether, so we will put the heads down, focus and see what we can do in two weeks’ time.”
They are almost there, however, as defeat left Dublin adrift with nothing to show from their two outings and Waterford and Derry still to play. Those are the current table toppers and basement dwellers, as the Déise ran up 5-30 to 0-2 win over the Oak Leafers, with their half-forward line of Niamh Rockett (1-5), Beth Carton (1-8) and Abby Flynn (3-3) carrying the bulk of the scoring load.
