By
Daragh Ó Conchúir
Liberty
Insurance All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final
Galway
v Kilkenny
4.15pm
Referee:
Ray Kelly (Kildare)
For the first time since 2015, the Liberty Insurance
All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final will not be contested by the
fierce rivals Cork and Kilkenny, with Galway breaking through to contest the
decider for the first time since losing to the Rebels four years ago.
It is a repeat of the 2013 decider, when the
Tribeswomen won the most recent of their two All-Ireland titles. Tony Ward was
manager of Galway in both those Finals, and when the Maroons made their
historic breakthrough in 1996, so current boss Cathal Murray will be looking to
enter select company.
The improvement in Galway has been obvious since the
Sarsfields man took over the reins after last year’s National League,
especially once he got a full pre-season into the players. They are
significantly more durable physically and nowhere was this more evident than in
their Semi-Final defeat of Cork, who were in pursuit of a third consecutive
Championship.
They dealt with setbacks too in that game, which was
also the case in the National League decider, when they got the better of
Kilkenny by a two-point margin that ultimately flattered the Noresiders,
despite their gritty second-half rally.
As well as physical and mental strength, Galway are
significantly beefed up in terms of the appliance of science and tactical
awareness.
They are bulwarked by a strong core that has known
the best days and the worst, with peerless full-back and captain Sarah Dervan
the rock of a very impressive full-back line in which Shauna Healy has also
been an obdurate presence. Niamh Kilkenny, Aoife Donohue, Ailish O’Reilly and
2013 skipper Lorraine Ryan remain key operators too.
There is fresher blood too however, with teenager Sarah
Healy establishing herself among the premier goalkeepers in the game having
succeeded Susan Earner three season ago. In particular, the 19-year-old made
some stunning saves when Waterford had her side rocking in the Quarter-Final,
and one crucial stop in the second-half in the penultimate round as Cork chased
a goal.
Former footballer Caitríona Cormican has proven a
key addition to the squad and her two points within a minute against the Rebels
were critical in keeping Paudie Murray’s crew at bay. Emma Helebert has been a
revelation at centre-back and Carrie Dolan has belied her youthfulness with the
composure she has shown over placed balls.
Kilkenny know all about All-Ireland Final day, with
this their fourth consecutive appearance in Camogie’s blue riband and sixth in
seven seasons. They have triumphed in only one of those, in 2016, but only fell
short by the minimum margin in the two subsequent deciders.
There was a reshuffle in the management team this
season but Ann Downey remains at the top and in the centre, the beating heart
and guiding hand, as she was when gathering 12 Senior Championship medals
herself.
There has been a very definite change in approach in
the meantime, with new coach, the two-time All-Ireland-winning hurler, Brian
Dowling facilitating the desire to implement a more attacking style than had
been seen in recent years.
With a view to matching Cork especially, but Galway
too, Kilkenny had moved former Player of the Year and three-time All-Star Anne
Dalton to a centre-back/sweeper role. It is hard to say that it didn’t work, as
they won an All-Ireland and Dalton doubled her All-Stars tally, while also then
being named Player of the Year for a second time at the end of last season. Yet
there was a gnawing sense that while opposition attacks were being neutralised,
their own talented forwards were suffering. They managed just 13 points in last
year’s Final and just nine the year before.
Putting a 43-point beating on Wexford in the group
stages clearly skews their scoring stats but that Dalton was leading scorer
going into the All-Ireland Semi-Final defeat of Tipperary, where she scored 1-1
and showed so many delightful exhibitions of her gifts, is certainly notable.
The St. Lachtain’s star is now operating largely
around centre-forward, from where she has plundered a stunning 6-11 from play.
Even if she were to drift back to the middle to help the likes of joint
skippers and sisters, Meighan and Anna Farrell, Kellyann Doyle and Denise Gaule
deny Donohue and Niamh Kilkenny the space they thrive in, it will still mean
that she is a threat in a creative sense. 2016 skipper, Michelle Quilty hit
Tipp for 1-9 and is now the team’s top scorer, just ahead of Gaule and Dalton,
while Miriam Walsh and Katie Power work like Trojans.
Defensively, Claire Phelan has stepped into the
Dalton position and made it her own, while Grace Walsh and Davina Tobin are
elite markers, who are also relishing having more targets to hit with their
clearances.
The potential match-ups are mouth-watering, whatever
way Downey and Murray decide to go, but it is difficult to envisage anything
other than this going down to the wire. Galway got on top by two points in the
League Final, though it was 16 scores to 10, but Kilkenny had the same margin
in hand in their Championship round-robin clash. There is nothing between them
and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a replay is required to unearth a victor.
Liberty
Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship Final
Galway
v Westmeath
2pm
Referee:
Andrew Larkin (Cork)
There will be a lot of maroon on view in Croke Park
with Galway involved in two Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Camogie Championships
Finals and Westmeath the opposition in the Intermediate match. Interestingly
however, it will be the westerners wearing the changed strip of white, due to a
jersey clash which they warmly welcome after a run of positive results in the
jersey since a previous enforced change.
It is Galway’s first appearance in the Intermediate
Final since 2013 and they will be hoping that the fact they appeared in the
Senior as well on that occasion will be a good omen, as they left headquarters
with both the Jack McGrath and O’Duffy (Senior) Cups.
Tony Ward was manager of both of those teams,
joining JJ Doyle of Wexford in a rare group that was supplemented last season
by Cork boss Paudie Murray. Cathal Murray has the reins for both sides this
year but the Ward link endures, with Tony’s daughter Laura the captain of the
Intermediates this season.
They were involved in a very competitive group, as
evidenced by the fact that runners-up Westmeath have also emerged. It was so
tight however that the table-toppers had to get a draw in their last tie
against a Kilkenny team that had beaten them in the Division 2 League
Semi-Final, to be assured of qualification.
As it transpired, had Kilkenny prevailed, three
teams would have finished on 15 points on the top of the table and Westmeath
would have missed out on score difference. Talk about tiny margins.
The teams met at the Coralstown/Kinnegad grounds in
June and Galway needed three goals to edge the verdict by a point. They
accounted for Division 2 League champions Tipperary by four points in the
Semi-Final and will go into the decider as marginal favourites.
It will only be marginal however, as Westmeath have
been making giant strides in recent years. Crucially, they have carried on the
momentum from garnering Premier Junior honours in 2017, reaching the Division 2
League Final last year and making the last four again this term.
That experience has been crucial in building as a
Championship outfit in the second tier and their form in the group stages,
where taking Kilkenny’s scalp in July proved the key result. The manner of that
victory was impressive too as Johnny Greville’s troops emerged from enemy
territory in the John Lockes’ facility in Callan with seven points in hand at
the final whistle.
They were involved in a humdinger against last
year’s Finalists Down in the Semi-Final. They held the upper hand throughout
but had to defend resolutely to hold off the Mournewomen by a point.
Experience of Croke Park will stand to Westmeath and
in long-serving Pamela Greville – sister of the manager – Megan Dowdall,
captain Mairéad McCormack, Sheila McGrath and Laura Doherty, they have a number
of driving forces.
Galway are not short on experience or quality
either, Tara Ruttledge having played Senior at the beginning of the decade and
maintaining her commitment to the second string over the years despite being a
Dublin-based teacher. Ava Lynskey, Molly Mannion, Méabh Scally, Ward and former
soccer international Lisa Casserley are others who have shone through the
summer.
The form book suggests that this will be very close.
Liberty
Insurance All-Ireland Junior Camogie Championship Final
Kerry
v Limerick
12noon
Referee:
Gavin Donegan (Dublin)
The All-Ireland Premier Junior Camogie Championship
Final has seen both of the finalists emerge from the same group.
There was little surprise in Kerry’s progression,
given that they had cruised through the group stages with a 100 per cent record
that included a three-point win over Limerick in Croagh, though with that
taking place two and a half months ago, there is potential for improvement in
both units since.
Limerick would have entered the competition in good
spirits as while they lost the National League Division 3 Final by four points,
their conquerors Kildare are an Intermediate outfit.
After the narrow defeat to Kerry, they were held
subsequently to a draw by Waterford but following a facile triumph over Wicklow,
they came out on top in a high-scoring winner-takes-all affair with Offaly to
bag the runners-up spot.
The Shannonsiders reserved their best performance of
the campaign to date for the penultimate hurdle, accounting for Roscommon by
seven points.
Kerry will be fancied to maintain the upward spiral
of Camogie in the Causeway region, and while they found Dublin too strong for
them in the 2018 decider, the old saying that you have to lose one to win one
comes to mind, particularly when it pertains to familiarising yourself with
Croke Park and how daunting playing an All-Ireland Final there can be.
In Patrice Diggin, they have an inspirational
performer, acknowledged during her Ashbourne Cup-dominating days at University
of Limerick as one of the nation’s premier players. In the 10-point Semi-Final
defeat of Clare, the flame-haired artist was a major influence once more from
frees and play.
Also on that day Julianne O’Keeffe scored a stunning
goal, flicked over her right shoulder in the air from a Diggin free, and is
always threatening up front, as evidenced by the four points she added to that
brilliant major against the Banner. At the other end of the pitch, Niamh Leen
is long-established as a stubborn full-back, who relishes the battle of
neutralising an opposition danger.
Rebecca Noonan is Limerick’s primary scorer but
Michelle Curtin and Geri-Mai O’Kelly offer valuable support to the free-taker.
In defence, Aoife Tangney is a key operator while captain Grace Lee is a
constant influence.
Neutral patrons, or supporters of the teams
competing in the subsequent Finals, would do well to come in early because the
day’s extravaganza should get off to a belter.
