Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final: Sunday 4pm in Croke Park: Kilkenny v Galway
OPPORTUNITY knocks for Galway and Kilkenny tomorrow.
For the first time since 2013 Cork will not feature in the All-Ireland senior final.
The Leesiders won four of the last five finals with Kilkenny beating them in 2016, but the Cats also lost three times while Galway left Croke Park disappointed in 2015.
So, it is not that tomorrow’s teams are unfamiliar with All-Ireland finals’ day – just that, with Cork out of the way, there is less of a psychological barrier to collecting the O’Duffy Cup.
Indeed Galway beat Kilkenny back in 2013 to take the title for only the second time and beat them again earlier this year to win the National League, their fifth title.
They were also the team to show Cork the exit door three weeks ago.
That 0-14 to 1-10 semi-final win in Limerick was full of determination, steel and no little amount of skill – as indeed was the 0-16 to 2-8 National League final win over Kilkenny back in April.
While their attack has been accurate with always a good spread of scores, Cathal Murray seems to have really worked hard on their defence since he took over the reins at the end of last season’s National League.
They now bring a huge work-rate, a high intensity and physicality in the tackle, and this year most teams have found them difficult opponents, although a narrow win over Waterford in the quarter-final had placed them a little under the radar coming into the Cork game.
A point up after having played with the wind, Galway dug in for the second and were the dominant team and Cork scored the last three points to close the gap to the minimum before time ran out.
Niamh Kilkenny was Player of the Match in the semi-final, but Galway managed to create space up front with Niamh Hannify moving out from full-forward and Kilkenny ran into to those pockets to score five points.
Kilkenny’s win over Tipperary came in the opening game in Limerick and their management team was able to assess the Galway performance in depth from the stand, not that they needed to be reminded of the task ahead as they had played a couple of tight games with them earlier in the season, after which Anne Downey had referenced the Connacht’s side’s physicality.
That wasn’t quite as evident in her own side’s 2-21 to 3-12 win over Tipperary, but there was a resilience in the Kilkenny performance as they came back from an early goal from Tipp to take a 2-9 to 1-8 interval lead. They then powered away in the second half with the last two scores being Tipperary goals.
Michelle Quilty hit 1-9 and they looked pretty competent all over the pitch during the second half – you would expect that from an experienced team most of who have already appeared in five of the last six finals.
The Cats seemed to be taken by surprise by Galway’s power in the league final. But they adjusted and won the opening group game of the All-Ireland series by a single point in Athenry.
Have Galway since re-adjusted enough to turn the tables? Their gutsy display against Cork suggests that they have what it takes – but there is not much between the teams and we could end with a draw.
Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Final: Sunday 2pm in Croke Park: Galway v Westmeath
THERE was little between Down and Westmeath this year in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final in Clones. With a bit more accuracy from the Mourne girls they might well be in a Croke Park decider for a second successive year.
But they are not, and it is because Westmeath showed tactical nuance to shut out the midfield dominance Down had enjoyed up until then. From there they were able, with Méabh Scally at sweeper, to deal with most of the balls coming into their defence.
Up front veteran Pamela Greville’s accuracy from frees kept them ahead and Shiela McGrath and Megan Dowdall, both of whom lost an All-Ireland minor final to Antrim last year, got clear runs on goal and made no mistake.
Greville has been around a long time, probably her county’s best ever player, but half her teammates have come through in the last three years with Greville one of just seven survivors from the team that broke the mould in 2017 to win the county’s first All-Ireland Junior crown with a 1-10 to 1-6 win over Dublin.
Crucially though four of the seven play in the forward line and that experience along with the pace and skill of Megan Dowdall and Maria Murtagh told against Down.
Galway beat Westmeath by a point in the latter’s first group game in the All-Ireland series back at the end of June. Galway had been in action already and beaten Antrim.
Westmeath manager Johnny Greville believes that set-back really focussed his team as they needed to win all their remaining five group games. Effectively his side have had six championship knock-out games in a row and a few of those went to the wire. They are battle-hardened by now.
Galway started well and kept going during their group campaign. They were already in the semi-finals by the time they met Kilkenny in their final game which ended in a 1-10 each draw.
Three weeks ago they were drawing, 1-8 to 2-5, with league champions Tipperary with injury-time starting. Ava Lynskey edged them ahead with a point before substitute Niamh Horan goaled within 40 seconds of her introduction.
But their defence took all the plaudits in that game, holding Tipp scoreless during the last 28 minutes of play. Laura Ward, Louise Brennan and Lorraine Coen are key players in that sec-tor while the experienced Rachael Hannify along with Tara Ruttledge are the main scorers.
Given that the county’s senior team is in action later in the afternoon, the Tribeswomen should have a strong support pushing them on in this final and the omens are good. Six years ago the county completed the Senior-Intermediate double.
Westmeath will not be far from them, but they are only two years up in the grade against a more experienced team who are training alongside those competing for the O’Duffy Cup.
A narrow win for Galway.
Liberty Insurance Premier Junior Championship Final: Sunday 12pm in Croke Park: Kerry v Limerick
KERRY are the team to make the headlines both this year and last in the All-Ireland Junior championship. Of the 27 panel members, 26 play for the same club and for the second year in a row the 15 starters in the final will be Clanmaurice players.
The county has just one club at adult level and even then they are an amalgamation of individuals from all the hurling clubs in north Kerry. But they are making it work.
Two years ago, Clanmaurice reached the All-Ireland Junior club final where they lost narrowly to Kilmessan from Meath. Last year they won Division 3 of the league and became the first team to represent Kerry in an All-Ireland camogie final in Croke Park. However they lost by 1-12 to 1-6 to Dublin.
Earlier this year they played in Division 2 for the first time. Even though they lost all four games, the margin in each was narrow enough and they managed to stay up by surviving a relegation play-off with Carlow.
That has been followed by an unbeaten run to Croke Park that included a 0-11 to 1-5 win in the opening group game in Limerick.
Although Limerick drew with Waterford in their next outing they have improved since and they have recorded decent totals in beating Wicklow, Offaly and then Roscommon in the semi-finals. They will push their neighbours.
Patrice Diggin scored the opening six points in Kerry’s semi-final win over Clare and Julieanne O’Keefe was their only other scorer (1-2) in a 1-13 to 0-6 win.
That restricted range of scorers might hamper them, but in recent years Waterford, Down, Laois and last year Dublin all came back from final defeat to win this competition. Kerry can do the same and record a famous first.
