Eimear Ryan: Explosive Camogie League climax, now batten down hatches for championship

The hurling league came to a much more sedate close. Should we expect more from the league — or at the very least, something very different from championship?

Kilkenny’s Colette Dormer tries to halt the progress of Galway’s Niamh McGrath in last Sunday’s Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division 1 final in Croke Park. Picture: Inpho/Ryan Byrne

Last Sunday night’s camogie final between Galway and Kilkenny brought an explosive conclusion to the league, which has lit up in the knockout stages in recent weeks. 

Though the first half was a bit of a slow burn, things accelerated quickly after half-time, beginning with Aoife Doyle’s pacy solo-run and classy finish in the 33rd minute. The two teams exchanged scores frantically for the remainder of the match; when Aoife Donohue levelled it for Galway a minute into injury time, I figured we were heading for a replay. But as they’ve done so many times before this year, Kilkenny hauled the game out of the fire, capitalising on Galway mistakes to run out winners by three points.