Galway sweating on Kilkenny fitness

by Daragh Ó Conchúir

 

GALWAY are sweating on the fitness of star midfielder Niamh Kilkenny ahead of their Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Group 1 outing against Waterford in Athenry on Saturday (5pm).

 

Kilkenny was player of the match as the Tribeswomen got their 2018 campaign off to the ideal start with a 10-point victory over Clare at Pearse Stadium last Saturday.

 

The five-time All-Star suffered an injury to a little finger in the opening minute of the game and though that didn’t prevent her from producing another all-action display that yielded five points from play, it may keep her sidelined this weekend.

 

Murray has not had long to work with Galway, having come in after Tony O’Donovan stepped away at the end of the League. Kilkenny was pleased however, that much of what they had been focusing on was replicated on matchday.

 

They rocked Clare back on their heels with a goal and two points almost directly from the throw-in. That had been a target too but the notorious inconsistency that has been a feature of their performances was still there.

 

“We’ve been doing a lot of work with support play in training” revealed Kilkenny on Galway Bay FM. “We’ve brilliant forwards up there and everyone is looking to give the ball to the person in the best position and thankfully it paid off (against Clare).

 

“It was probably our aim going out that we get off to a good start. It was something in the past we weren’t so great at doing, we usually finish stronger. We were delighted with our start but we let Clare back into it again and they’re a team you can’t let that happen with but thankfully we pulled through in the end.”

 

Next up are Waterford and Murray revealed that harnessing six points from the opening two ties was a priority.

 

“The two home games against Clare and Waterford, we would have targeted two victories” declared Murray.

 

“There’s an awful lot of things to improve on… we had great scoring and we were happy enough with that but we felt we needed to be more clinical as well. We had two or three goal opportunities we didn’t take and a few point opportunities where we could have gone for a score, maybe went for goal too much but they’re all things we’ll improve on.

 

“We’ll watch the video, analyse it and see where we can improve but it’s all about recovery now. It’s a big week, we targeted the first two games, it’s a home game in Athenry next Saturday. We’re looking forward to that and we certainly need to win it.”

 

Fixtures: Saturday June 16^th

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Senior Championship Group 1
Clare v Limerick, 5pm, Sixmilebridge GAA
Galway v Waterford, 5pm, Athenry GAA

 

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Championship Group 1

Cork v Carlow, Cork Camogie Grounds @ 5pm

Down v Derry, Portaferry GAA @ 5pm

 

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Championship Group 2

Galway v Tipperary, Athenry GAA @ 3pm

Kilkenny v Antrim, John Lockes GAA, Callan @ 5pm

Westmeath v Kildare, Cusack Park, Mullingar @ 5pm