By Daragh Ó Conchúir
Regardless of how often we have seen it, people never fail to lose the run of themselves in making kneejerk assessments around results in the opening portion of a season.
And so it was when a Cork team, shorn of most of its first teamers from last year, got off to a poor start in the Centra Camogie League and then failed to get to the Munster final.
But due to retirements, injuries and unavailability for a plethora of other reasons, Ger Manley and his brains trust had no option but to give a host of new players their heads.
It was a new experience, a massive step up in class, pace and physicality, and that showed.
But the newcomers were keen students and have taken the lessons on board. Meanwhile, the core of experienced players that guided them have been rejoined by more of their long-standing colleagues.
And so this morning, after taking in the draw for next weekend’s Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-finals on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, they can happily get back to preparing for a place in the semi-final, having gone three from three in Group 1 and cemented one of the two automatic last-four spots.
They were made to work by Waterford yesterday and a fortuitous goal from goalie, Amy Lee in the first half set the platform for a 1-13 to 0-10 triumph at Páirc Uí Rinn. Other than that, how well Ashling Thompson was moving on her return from a serious elbow injury was notable, while skipper Méabh Cahalane was also back on the scene.
Ashling Thompson completed a brilliant return from a dislocated and broken elbow with a late point for Cork, despite the close attentions of Waterford defender, Orla Hickey (Photos: INPHO/Stephen Heaney)
Player of the match, Sorcha McCartan was understandably delighted though she did admit that there was doubt in the dressing room prior to the opening round win over Galway.
“We were struggling in ways but we had to give time to girls to bed themselves in,” said McCartan.
“It wasn’t going to happen overnight but thankfully, we’re starting to rack up performances. It’s obviously a great feeling when you’re seeing the work pay off.
“We’ll keep the heads down for the next four weeks and look forward to whoever comes next.
“If you’d have told me five weeks ago that (we’d have three from three) I don’t know if I’d have believed you or anyone in changing room would have believed you, the way the year was going.
“We didn’t change much in training. We had a pop off Galway, went out and took off the shackles and said, ‘If we can try our best and perform, you’d never know where it might take us,’ and I think we gathered a lot of confidence from that when we performed and won and we knew we had players to come back in. We had Ashling Thompson today and Méabh Cahalane back in the fray as well.
“Nothing is won yet but we’re just happy to get a few wins on the board as it’s been a tough year. It’s been testing at times. We’ve questioned ourselves, questioned management, questioned everything but we stuck together and now we’re reaping the rewards. Going straight to the semi-finals is what everybody wanted to do so we’re delighted.”
Both Cork and Waterford had their captains back in the fold after injury, Méabh Cahalane returning to the fray from the start for the Rebels, while Bray was introduced as a sub for the Déise
Manley has been involved in All-Ireland-winning teams as a coach and manager, so he wasn’t going to be jumping up and down about where the Rebels find themselves now. And he feels Waterford might still have a say in the championship, though they will be without the suspended Niamh Rockett next weekend, after the former All-Star was sent off after coming on as a half-time sub and getting a couple of points.
“We wanted to qualify for the semi-finals,” said Manley. “It was a very tough game between two evenly matched teams. The goal was the difference early on. You need a bit of luck. Our aim was to win the match and we won it.
“There’s a lot of experienced players there. Libby Coppinger was very good. I thought Thompson was exceptional. That’s her first game back since dislocating her elbow and breaking it. I thought Laura Hayes worked very hard in the centre. Waterford are an exceptional team and they’ll be there or thereabouts. The aim was to get to the semi-final in Thurles and we’re there now.”
Galway defeated Cork in last year’s All-Ireland final and they bagged the other semi-final spot with a comfortable 3-17 to 0-15 triumph over Tipperary in Kenny Park, the goals coming from Caoimhe Kelly and Niamh McPeake (two). Eimear McGrath shot 11 points for Tipp, but those goal concessions meant that they and Waterford face a quick turnaround now next weekend.
And there they find Clare and Kilkenny after Saturday’s last round of Group 2 outings. Kilkenny were already there and completed the round-robin phase with a 100% record via a 1-12 to 1-7 win over Wexford.
They will be in a relegation play-off with Dublin, after their 3-12 to 1-18 draw with Limerick. And Clare finished strongly to beat Offaly 0-16 o 1-8 to join the Cats in this morning’s draw.
“We came here knowing Offaly were going to put it up to us,” said player of the match, Róisín Begley. “We were disappointed last week and sometimes it’s hard to turn around after a heavy defeat and come out and put your best performance on show.
“Sometimes when things are going bad, everything goes bad and it becomes compounding errors so we were disappointed with how it went (last week against Kilkenny). So we just went back into training Tuesday and Thursday and focused on Offaly. We were delighted to come out with the win and look forward to next week.
“We were happy with the performances up until Kilkenny and it wouldn’t have been a good year for us if we hadn’t gotten out of the group. We’re delighted we have done that and we’ll see who we’re facing.
“It’s a good day when a Clare camogie team is playing in Croke Park. As a young girl I probably didn’t think it would happen so to be doing it two years in a row is huge.”
