EchoLive.ie, 16 Jul
Confidence high that Cork camogie teams couldreach both All-Ireland
finals
Manager Trevor Coleman, Cork on the sideline against Kildare in the
Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship; Cork Vs
Kildare at Pairc Ui Rinn on Saturday 2nd July 2022. Pic: Larry Cummins
Linda Mellerick
IT'S Cork, Galway, Derry, and Meath in the last four of the All-Ireland
Intermediate championship after the latter two defeated Dublin and
Kerry respectively last weekend.
Both winning scores were impressive, a 1-23 to 1-10 defeat of Dublin
and a 2-17 to 1-7 trouncing of Kerry.
With Cork and Galway having topped their groups they’ll be kept apart
for the semi-final.
Cork have already defeated Meath in their group qualifier, 1-12 to 0-11
and suffered a three-point defeat to Derry in Owenbeg where, by all
accounts, they were disappointed with their performance.
So, confidence is high that Cork could reach an All-Ireland final, but
all four teams need to bring their A game to the semis as all four will
believe they can get to Croke Park.
The availability of Ashling Thompson hung in the balance on Wednesday
night after being called to a hearing with no decision advised on the
night.
Cork’s management will attend this weekend’s quarter finals in Semple
Stadium with an open interest as an open draw will determine the
semi-finalists and so Cork could get Kilkenny, Waterford, Dublin, or
Limerick depending on who advances.
Both games are live on RTÉ.
Waterford and Limerick face off at 3.15pm with Dublin and Kilkenny at
5.30pm.
The last time Dublin and Kilkenny met was May, in the Leinster final at
MW Hire O’Moore Park.
Kilkenny won well. They got a fast start and Dublin were chasing the
game from there. But they never stopped trying.
Cork's Saoirse McCarthy solos away from Waterford's Mairead O'Brien.
Picture: Noel Browne Cork's Saoirse McCarthy solos away from
Waterford's Mairead O'Brien. Picture: Noel Browne
Perhaps it was that attitude wrote Niall Scully during the week that
brought them to the quarter final. Dublin were out the following week
after that Leinster final defeat in the opening round of the
All-Ireland series to Waterford.
They defeated the Munster side who now face Limerick by two points, and
it certainly boosted morale.
"We felt we underperformed against Kilkenny that day," said manager
Adrian O’Sullivan.
"We didn’t do ourselves justice. We’ll see how much we have improved
since."
Kilkenny will go in as hot favourites having just been pipped by Galway
for the first-place group spot.
The Dubs concluded their group with a great second half performance
against Wexford which saw them push Tipperary out on scoring
difference. Kilkenny should advance here though despite Dublin’s best
efforts.
Waterford will be expected to overcome Limerick. Waterford are into a
fifth All-Ireland championship quarter-final in a row and need to
advance to be viewed as a top county.
There’s every chance Cork will meet Waterford in the semi leaving
Kilkenny and Galway to do trojan battle again after only drawing two
weeks ago in their final group meeting.
But we’ll know all of that this evening, assuming the draw is made
after the final whistle.
It's a big boost for Limerick's young side that they’ve reached the
quarters.
After two horrendous results in their opening two games where they lost
by a combined total of thirty-one points, they turned it around.
It was always going to be that way though wasn’t it. Galway and
Kilkenny would win all their games and the battle for third spot was
going to be between the remaining four teams.
To be fair to Limerick they won their next three and easily qualified
ahead of Antrim, Down and Offaly.
It's a big weekend for new sponsors Glen Dimplex. Rowena Rodrigues,
Group Head of External Relations, and Engagement at Glen Dimplex
attended the quarter final launch earlier this week.
"As proud sponsors of the camogie association All-Ireland
championships, Glen Dimplex is delighted to show our support for the
quarter finals, in what is set to be an exciting double header in
Semple Stadium.
"We are delighted to be involved with the championships and would like
to congratulate all the players and teams who competed over the last
six weeks.”
It’s a bit surreal to realise that we are just three weeks away from
the All-Ireland camogie finals.
We’ll keep out fingers crossed that we’ll have two teams there on the
day.
August 7th will be an extra special day as the winning Cork teams of
1995 and 1997 are invited to a lunch in Croke Park to celebrate their
Jubilee anniversary.