by Daragh Ó Conchúir at FBD Semple Stadium
You couldn’t blame Cathal Murray for being perplexed his side’s non-performance, as Cork picked Galway apart with consummate ease to bag their 17th Very Camogie League Division 1A title but a first since 2013 on a scarcely believable scoreline of 0-21 to 0-10 in Thurles.
As we have come to expect from the Sarsfields man, he didn’t shy away from it either.
There are two sides to every story, however, which can be forgotten in favour of a preferred narrative.
Cork came to FBD Semple Stadium with all bar three players on the squad not having a League medal in an otherwise impressive collection. A few of them had lost five finals. It wasn’t keeping them awake at night, you suspect, but when there’s a scratch, you want to itch it. Consider it itched.
“We set our stall to go after the League,” said Cork boss, Ger Manley. “When we saw the draw, we had a couple of games at home and I think it fell for us.
“I’ve been saying it all along we have a strong squad. I thought we were very good today, one of the best performances since I’ve been involved in the couple of years (as manager). You can see the composure and the concentration, everything is right.
Cork manager, Ger Manley (INPHO/Ben Brady)
“I know I changed it up a bit today but there are some brilliant players there. The example is the three girls that played the football League final in Croke Park yesterday – Libby Coppinger, Hannah Looney and Aoife Healy and how good they were. And I’m not going to stop them playing.
“Libby is like a new player back to us from last year (when she suffered an ACL injury).”
The dual players all excelled, and ended a weekend that had begun in defeat, in far brighter fashion.
Manley’s reference to the squad was in light of having to make two late changes, player of the year, Laura Hayes not being risked and Katrina Mackey pulling up in the warm-up. Emma Murphy came in for Hayes and shot three points, while none other than Amy O’Connor got the nod in Mackey’s stead.
Clodagh Finn, who scored a peach of a point as a sub as Cork edged out Galway in last year’s All-Ireland final, carried on her good form through the campaign with two points and was always a threat. In all they had eight scorers.
Murray (above) certainly gave Cork their credit but he knew his crew failed to fire a shot and that was galling.
“We’re disappointed,” said the Galway manager. “It wasn’t a good performance. We’re not going to hide that. It just wasn’t good. We weren’t at the races at all.
“I thought we started well, just didn’t put them scores on the board; had a few misses early on. But we weren’t at the races when Cork stepped up a gear, they were miles the better team and no excuses to be honest with you.
“It’s not too many times we don’t turn up as a team but we just didn’t turn up today unfortunately. A lot of things went wrong everywhere, all over the field, so we’ll just have to go back to the drawing board.
“We’re a lot better than that, we know that, but we’ll just have to give them a break now, ten days off, and prepare now for the 24th of May… the first round of the Championship.”
Ashling Thompson was one of the trio of survivors from Cork’s last League triumph, along with Katrina and Pamela Mackey. The latter excelled, even driving embarking on a lightning fast 40m run to set up an early point for Murphy.
The Mackeys were 34 in March. Thompson was 35 the same month. The Milford powerhouse earned player-of-the-match honours and nobody demurred. She was magnificent, scoring three points, winning lots of ball and spraying it around. Is it possible she is getting better? Amy Lee thinks so.
“Honestly, the last couple of years is the best I’ve seen her ever,” said the Cork goalkeeper. “She’s just so fit, physical, her hurling is still top notch. She knows how to mind herself, she knows when she can go full pelt. She’s an excellent athlete and her knowledge of the game is unbelievable and it’s really helping us.
“When she came back (from her cruciate ligament injury) a couple of years ago, I was watching her doing the runs and she was fitter than I’d ever seen her. And it’s worked well for her and we’re benefiting.”
Scores from Finn, Murphy and Thompson had Cork four points in front when Amy Lee was called upon to make a fantastic save from an Ailish O’Reilly ground shot in the 24th minute.
Lee made a big save when Galway were still in content, coming out quick and saving a ground shot from Ailish O’Reilly in the 24th minute.
“In a situation like that, one of two things is going to happen,” Lee explained with her customary grin. “She’s going to pick the ball or she’s going to pull on it. The minute I thought she was going to pull on it, I just slid out on my knees, just to make sure there was no base. It only clipped the heel of my foot.
“You see in the second half, Aoife Donohue did the opposite, she went to pick it running into me. Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw. You do the percentages in your head as it’s playing out and then try to pick the right one.”
The former Cork captain, described by current skipper, Méabh Cahalane in the match programme as the mammy of the team, revealed that while Cork had rested a few big guns in the final round game against Galway at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, when the Rebels were already qualified and the visitors need the victory to make the final, getting turned over clearly didn’t sit well with them.
“It’s good to get silverware always. You go out at the start of the year and your aim is to win everything. It doesn’t always go that way, and the main prize at the end of the day is the O’Duffy Cup but it’s nice to get that bit of silverware again.
“We won’t get ahead of ourselves, we’re back into Munster Championship again next week. We’ll go back, review, see what we can work on and have a good couple of weeks solid training again.”
“We had goals going out from the game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against Galway. We said if we could go out and hit them, we’d give the League a good rattle and to be fair it worked. Everyone knew their job and they did their job and it worked out well for us today.”
