By Kevin Egan
Eimear McGrath hit the net for Tipperary from a late penalty in Azzuri Walsh Park yesterday afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to deny Waterford a fully-deserved 0-16 to 1-10 win in what was the first game of the 2026 Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie championship for both counties.
Group 1 involves last year’s semi-finalists and will determine who will go directly to the last four this year, while the other pair will take on the top two from Group 2 in the quarter-finals and the Déise were delighted to avenge last month’s Munster final defeat.
This comes after Cork reversed their All-Ireland final defeat to Galway by 0-18 to 1-8 on Saturday and though there will be no alarm bells for the westerners yet, having not had a game since winning the Centra Division 1A League final against Waterford, it was a big win for Cork given their slow start to the year as they introduced a slew of new names to the side.
Ailish O’Reilly, making her first appearance of the season off the bench after playing National League basketball, posted a late consolation goal to give the scoreline a flattering look for the champions after a display that in the words of manager Cathal Murray, was “a long way off our own standards”.
“We could easily have shipped three goals in the second half, we were miles off it,” he added.
“You feel you’re doing the right thing for the last eight weeks; obviously we weren’t. There was a team down south that was doing a lot more than us and working a lot better than us.”
Cork have lost a number of players through injury, retirements or travel and the League proved useful in bedding in new players. Ger Manley lined out his team with seven players that didn’t start the All-Ireland final last August. Six of those started at midfield or in defence, and yet it was in that sector that Cork were most dominant, suffocating the Galway attack.
“We’ve a lot of young players in this year, the U23s had a great win in their All-Ireland championship and most of them are on our panel,” Manley said afterwards.
“For our first few league games we had no Saoirse (McCarthy), no Laura (Hayes) and we needed to do (start younger players) at times because we’ve been very consistent over the past four or five years, you’re using the same players so we need to change it up a bit, and some of our young players were exceptional today.”
Cork’s Orlaith Cahalane has a shot at goal despite the best efforts of Galway’s Carrie Dolan (Photos: INPHO/James Lawlor)
Like Cork, Waterford and were full value for their victory, having performed brilliantly to be within a point of Tipp at half-time.
It took less than a minute for Eimear O’Neill to level the game with the wind now at her back, and the wing-forward went on to collect the Player of the Match award for an industrious display that saw her chip in with three points from play.
“There was a lot of hurt from the Munster final, so there was a bit of grit there,” she said afterwards, while manager Michael Boland said that he was delighted to have been so close at the turnaround, given the strength of the elements.
“We were very happy only a point down, but we could have pushed on a lot more and left a few scores behind us. It’s one victory, it’s nothing else, there’s a lot of improving to do, and we know Galway will come down to us with all guns blazing next week.”
The Tribeswomen will certainly be looking for an improvement as they travel Suirside, after they produced what can only be described as an under par performance at Kenny Park.
While all four Group 1 teams will play knockout championship under the new structure, it’s a very different world in Group 2, where already Kilkenny and Clare are in the driving seat.
Dublin played host to Wexford and they formally eliminated the Model County from the championship with a comprehensive 1-18 to 0-8 win, where Dublin conceded just four points from play to the side that beat them in the Leinster championship.
“We dominated that game for a lot of it too, but we also went out of it for a long time, and that allowed Wexford to come storming into it and force extra time,” said manager Bill McCormack of the provincial decider.
“That’s been the story of the championship so far. We’ve played well in spells but today was the first time that we were really strong for the full hour, we never gave Wexford a chance to get a run on us.”
Dublin still could sneak into the top two on scoring difference, but they will need to round out the season with two victories and hope that they get help from elsewhere, since both Kilkenny and Clare already have three wins from three starts.
“The girls have trained too long and hard to fold up the tent so we’ll keep looking after our own business and hopefully things fall our way,” McCormack said.
Clare might have looked vulnerable due to the injury to Lorna McNamara, their star attacker and talisman, but the Banner built on an early Róisín Begley goal to secure a 1-13 to 0-11 win over Limerick in Ennis on Saturday, while at UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny took their time to get going but ultimately racked up a 5-15 to 3-9 win over Offaly, posting goals from Emma Shortall, Sarah Barcoe, Steffi Fitzgerald, Aoife Prendergast and Emma Mulhall.
