Karen Duddy at Croke Park
Cork's camogie team triumphed in a fiercely contested All-Ireland Senior Final against Galway, securing their 31st Glen Dimplex All-Ireland title with a final push that showcased their depth and determination.
As the opening whistle blew, the Galway fifteen darted to their respective marking matchups. This would serve for some brilliant one-on-one battles at every corner of the pitch throughout the game. The first half saw Cork take an early lead, but key turnovers from Niamh Kilkenny in the centre of the pitch combined with five flawless Carrie Dolan frees disturbed Cork's flow and put Galway a point ahead going into the half.
"We went in at half time, can’t say we were happy. We set the standards and the standards weren’t good in the first half. I didn’t think we were working hard enough in certain areas and that changed in the second half," Cork manager Ger Manley said post-game.
Momentum swung heavily in favour of the Rebels in the third quarter, where they pulled six points ahead of the Tribeswomen. This included the green flag being waved when the speedy Amy O'Connor drew in the defenders to leave Mackey free in front of goal. In a whirlwind of action, the sliotar edged over the line as Mackey failed to make connection, but advantage had been played when O'Connor was fouled swiftly after letting off her pass.
"I didn’t see a replay of the goal. I believe it was a throw ball and I questioned it on the line. I was told it was going to be a penalty and the reason they just let it play was because it was going to be a penalty anyway. I wouldn’t agree with them there at all but I’m not going to make excuses, I gave out last year in Nowlan Park and I'm not going to go down that road. In fairness to Liz, she’s a really good referee, has a really good spectacle out there, I think she had to let it go" said Galway manager Cathal Murray on the Cork goal.
Katrina pulled her hamstring before she got the goal. She went on and next thing we had to take her off and the captain came on. Her ankle’s like a balloon inside – she played on. It’s like Méabh (Cahalane) there, we’ve had some bad injuries and we just got on with it and that’s the difference this year," reflected Manley on his team's resilliance.
But the Galway girls showcased the grit and determination they are known for, and incredibly pulled back their deficit to level the sides for the tenth time. Wing-back Ciara Hickey had slotted a fantastic score and the dogged Aoife Donoghue was everywhere on the pitch. The intensity increased, as did the physicality. Six unanswered points from Galway had every spectator believing that they actually could go on to take victory.
Yet with their scores came wides, seven of them in the second half as the Tribeswomen began to falter. In the closing minutes, Cork substitutes Sorcha McCarton and Clodagh Finn made their minutes count and put over three massive scores between them to edge their side to their two-in-a-row All-Ireland victory.
An emotional Cathal Murray felt his team left everything on the pitch but were beaten by a better team.
It’s hard to put into words. Obviously Galway are bitterly disappointed. Just super proud of the girls. Since the game down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh we’ve been completely written off, there was a lot of obituaries written about us. But for the last six weeks we’ve done ourselves really proud. We put ourselves in a great position I felt but probably didn’t take our chances going down the stretch. That’s going to haunt us for a while, but Cork are a super team, we always knew that. We knew we had to give an unbelievable performance, and probably did that for a lot of the game but didn’t finish it off. Credit to them they’re a super team. The best two teams get to the final for me and the best team wins it – Cork are the best team this year and they deserve it.
Ger Manly, on the other hand, knew it was in his team to claim victory on the biggest of stages.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy. I know people say we weren’t tested but we beat what’s in front of us. Galway are an exceptional team for the last five or six years. We needed a match like that. We needed that game to show what we were made of, and I think it really showed there in the last 7 or 8 minutes when the going got tough.
I think we raised the bar this year - performance wise, fitness wise, hurling wise.
We should be going for five-in-a-row - we should be like Limerick, we should've won the last four!
