By Daragh Ó Conchúir at FBD Semple Stadium
If we are honest, the composition of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie final is not a surprise, but there were question marks about both champions Galway and Cork and they provided the necessary answers in front of a record semi-final crowed of 10,311 to get over the line against Kilkenny and Tipperary respectively.
The Tribeswomen were better value than the 1-14 to 0-11 scoreline suggested, as they were in cruise control for the second half, once the outstanding Carrie Dolan drilled a penalty to the net less than two minutes after the resumption, having been fouled off the ball in the square.
Dolan finished with 1-4 but as ever, her influence extended far beyond scoring, particularly in the opening half.
Ciara Hickey, who was named player of the match, Róisin Black and Dervla Higgins led the customarily obdurate defence, while Niamh Niland, Niamh McPeake and the excellent Caoimhe Kelly were all multiple scorers from play at the other end.
Galway goalie Sarah Healy blocks the goal attempt of Kilkenny forward Caoimhe Keher-Murtagh’s goal attempt in the second half (Photo: INPHO/Tom Maher)
Kilkenny were heavily reliant on Aoife Prendergast’s accuracy from frees, the Dicksboro ace scoring eight points and three from play told much of the Stripeywomen’s ability to get any change from the stingiest defence in camogie.
Much has been made of Cork’s turnover of players – and it is considerable – but Galway have lost five All-Ireland winners too and were shorn of Niamh Mallon and Jennifer Hughes through injury for this outing.
And yet, they are through to a sixth All-Ireland final under Cathal Murray’s steardship, bidding to secure a fourth triumph in this golden era.
“I’m really proud of the girls out there,” said Murray. “When you start the Championship, you just want to get to the final. You want to be there the second Sunday of August.
“Coming in, I’ll tell you now, I was worried because we’d only three games played and we were sitting back watching Kilkenny play six games – six and a half games if you count extra time the last day – and they were looking an excellent team. And they are an excellent team.
“So we were concentrating on the first 10 minutes, getting a good start and getting into the game and I’m really proud of the girls to be honest with you. I thought it was an unbelievable performance – the amount of hooks and blocks and tackles. The amount of players that stood up for us today, that’s the thing I take out of it, to be honest with you and I’m just delighted to be back in the final.”
Kilkenny’s influential midfieler Laura Murphy slips to the turf under pressure from Galway’s Ally Hesnan (Photo: INPHO/Bryan Keane)
While glowing about the performances of his younger cohort, the sight of player of the year Aoife Donohue, club player of the year Dervla Higgins and Higgins’ Athenry clubmate Sabina Rabbitte forced to depart the fray was concerning.
“We’re under pressure with injuries now. Jenny and Niamh Mallon were out today and couldn’t start. Aoife picked up a knee injury and we’re not sure how bad that is and it is gonna have to be assessed.
“Sabina’s injury doesn’t look too good. She just went in to block down and she got a nasty enough injury on the thumb it looks like. There’s a few more. Dervla had to come off early and she got injured in the first half as well.”
As he spoke, a heavily limping Dolan walked past, having finishing up just standing in at full-forward, with Galway playing the last 10 minutes down to 14 after Rabbitte’s departure as it was, having used their full complement of subs. Murray revealed later that it was a calf issue.
“Two weeks’ time is a massive game so we want to have as many people as we can on board. Hopefully (the injuries) clear up but it’s certainly not looking good for one or two of them.”
In the opposite camp next week are familiar faces in Cork, the team whose three-in-a-row aspirations they ended 12 months ago. Now, there is talk of Galway securing a first ever two-in-a-row but when this was put to Ailish O’Reilly, the exclamation of disdain told a tale. It will be grand to talk about if it happens, but as ever, it is only about winning this one.
“The media is always going to bring up those things, no more than last year with Cork and the three-in-a-row,” said Reilly. “You’d be lying if you said we didn’t want it. Absolutely we do but it’s not the main focus. We have lots of other things to work on first and if it happens, it happens.”
You nearly believed Cork selector, Gemma O’Connor when she said the Rebels were in bonus territory now, after first-half raspers from Amy O’Connor and Millie Condon, and some cracking performances by the likes of Emma Murphy (four first-half points from play), Sorcha McCartan (0-3, a couple of assists and a goal assist) and player of the match Libby Coppinger enabled the Leesiders hold off a rallying Tipperary by 2-16 to 0-17.
A stupendous save by Amy Lee from a Grace O’Brien shot bound for the top left-hand corner was critical too in the second half, with the Premier building up a head of steam, thanks to points from O’Brien, Eimear McGrath, Caoimhe Stakelum and Eimear Heffernan.
It was a real test that this very transitional side came through and just as in last year’s semi-final, Orlaith Mullins came off the bench to settle things, this time with two smartly taken points.
“It’s great,” remarked a smiling O’Connor, whose joy at an All-Ireland semi-final triumph told of the many troughs that have been encountered as a slew of newbies were bedded in this term.
“The goals. They make an awful difference. And early on, they give you a cushion when things aren’t going right and Tipp were going to have their patch. And they’re a good side, they’re well able to hurl.
“If someone said to me at the start of the year that we’d be in an All-Ireland final now, it’d be hard to believe it.
“And everyone was the same. Even the girls. There was a lot of heartache there but they drove on together and it’s exciting to see it.
“It’s about trying to time it. Our goal was the (All-Ireland) Championship because we knew the League was gonna be extremely hard. We thought we might perform a little bit better in the Munster Championship, but it didn’t happen, so we needed a little more time.
“But our goal was always the Championship and they just started so well (today). It’s all about intensity, keeping up the tempo, wanting it more, and instilling that into players. It’s very hard to beat. Look at the Limerick hurlers. They’re obviously talented but their work rate is unbelievable. It’s about performance. It’s about stepping up.”
Tipperary midfielder, Karin Blair makes a stunning catch, with Cork sub Orlaith Mullins – who scored two crucial points in the final quarter – closing in (Photo: INPHO/Bryan Keane)
Tipp manager, James Heffernan was pleased with his players’ battling qualities.
“I thought we showed what we’re about in the second half,” said Heffernan. “It’s always going to be an uphill battle with nine points in it (at half-time). In fairness to the girls, they could easily have died and they didn’t.
“We asked them to get it back to seven, get it back to five and they did that but just didn’t push on. With 10 minutes on the clock we had it back to five.
“That goal would have made a big difference but we needed to create more goal chances. We didn’t create any other chance outside of that (shot by O’Brien).
“They had a spare player in defence as we had a third midfielder. Maybe we didn’t get that midfielder on enough ball so maybe the thing was to push on. It’s probably easy to say now.
“But that’s the trade-off. We did well in the middle in the second half and Cork are good at working the ball out from the back. But the girls fought to the very end.”
As for Cork, O’Connor almost sounded like they would go up and enjoy the day. But the St Finbarr’s legend didn’t win nine All-Irelands with that sort of approach to camogie.
“It’s a bonus that we’re in the All-Ireland but now that you’re here, we were delighted we made the semi-final but like that, once you’re there, you want to win it.”
Two heavyweights, with tons of shared history, going toe to toe. We cannot wait.
