Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship
Group 1, round two (Saturday)
Cork v Down (Páirc Uí Chaoímh, 3pm)
Clare v Galway (Cusack Park, 5pm)
DOWN’S last meeting with Cork in the senior championship was two years ago in Páirc Esler when the visitors won 1-13 to 0-10.
Sorcha McCartan claimed three of the Down points that day, but the Down management and players will hope that she fails to hit the target this weekend.
The former Castlewellan forward is now very much committed to the Cork cause and has been a regular with the Munster side since her inter-county transfer was approved at the start of last season.
She had been part of the team that took Down to the intermediate championship and Division Two league title during the Covid restrictions, a team that has changed significantly over the past two seasons.
Apart from McCartan, six others who played that day are no longer part of the Mourne set-up, while another, Aimee McAleenan, has been operating from the bench for Paul Donnelly’s team of late.
Niamh Mallon hit the other seven points against Cork in that championship group game two seasons ago and she accounted for 1-9 from the 2-11 Down scored against Clare a fortnight ago.
Donnelly and the rest of the management team were happy enough with the team performance, if not the result, in that game – as they had been with the Ulster final defeat of Antrim a couple of weeks earlier.
It was disappointing to concede the last five scores when they were in a position to win the game, the goal coming as a result of the space left in front of their own goals when they pushed PWC player of the month for May Dearbhla Magee forward in search of a match-winning score.
This weekend’s opponents are championship contenders while Down are a hard-working team, good enough to play at this level but not good enough yet to beat a top-four side.
Their vulnerabilities will be more evident on the road than in their preferred home venue Fontenoy Park.
Last season they had to go to Kenny Park, Athenry in the championship and took a tanking from Galway, who they will face again in two weeks.
Both these games must be damage-limitation exercises to leave them psychologically in a good place for the relegation play-off next month.
Just a week after laying to rest one of their greatest-ever dual players, Teddy McCarthy, Cork face a clash of fixtures this weekend with the senior teams in camogie and football sides both in championship action.
The four current dual stars – Hannah Looney, Libby Coppinger, Orlaith Cahalane and Aoife Healy – are likely to commit to the footballers, who play Galway, and that may slightly benefit Down.
Nevertheless Matthew Twomey will want his team to be ruthless and get well ahead of the visitors so that he can further challenge his subs’ bench over the last 20 minutes.
In the other game in Ennis, Galway will be on their guard against Clare who have put it up to the top teams in individual games over the past two seasons, even beating Cork and Kilkenny along the way.
Verdict: Cork and Galway each to win comfortably.
