Geary: Cork wary of dangerous Tribe

CORK have far too much respect for the huge challenge presented by Galway in today’s Gala All-Ireland semi-final to be preoccupied with thoughts of winning a third senior title in a row.

That’s the admission of wing-back Anna Geary, who has bounced right back to the type of form this year that has won her two All-Stars in the past.

“It’s enough of a motivation to have the chance of being in an All-Ireland final,” reasoned Geary, ahead of today’s Nowlan Park clash (2pm).

“Different teams require different mental preparation. The fact that Galway beat us in the round-robin means we want to prove we’re better than that. Galway have their own motivation.

“They were pipped by Kilkenny in the semi-final last year so they’ll be desperate to get over that hurdle this time.

“So we’ll both have different motivations, and it will just be a case of who gives more on the day. We’re all going to try to win and we’re hoping that it will be us who will click.”

It is just as well for Cork that Geary has been flying, as a combination of retirement, travelling and injury contributed to a largely unimpressive round-robin phase. There was only a point between the sides when Kilkenny prevailed on June 19 but Galway were full value for their six-point advantage in Athenry a fortnight later. There were definite signs of renewed health with the subsequent gritty defeat of Wexford.

While Briege Corkery is on her travels in Australia, and Una O’Donoghue and Emer Dillon are no longer involved, Joanne O’Callaghan has returned from an elbow problem and some of the younger players such as Inniscarra’s Joanne Casey have bedded in.

Geary noted: “We might be missing three who have been regulars for a number of years but on any given day, in any given year, players are missing. You have players coming through all the time and that’s what you need to be successful anyway. You can’t dwell on it when people are missing. You have to drive on.”

A member of the panel since 2004, Geary already had five All-Ireland inter-county medals by that stage, collecting two at U14 and an amazing three-in-a-row at U16.

Senior medals were added in 2005-2006 but work placement in Luxembourg as part of her studies caused her to miss out on another Galway reunion in the final, when again, the Leesiders prevailed.

An IT whizz who works for VMware in Ballincollig, Geary is a bubbly personality who plays with a similar freedom. A product of renowned camogie nursery, St Mary’s, Charleville, the 23-year-old is hungry for more success.

“We lost to Kilkenny by a point but when we went up to Galway and just didn’t perform – that was disappointing. It’s the beauty of sport I suppose. You can do as much preparation as you want but it’s all about the game on the day.

“Galway hit us straight from the start and we could have had no qualms about the result. We took a long look at ourselves and learned from the game. There have been some positional switches but this time around, it’ll be all about performing as a unit and hopefully that will give us the result. That’s the plan anyway.”

In the other semi-final Kilkenny face Wexford (Nowlan Park, 4pm) in a repeat of this year’s league final which the Model County won. Kilkenny’s defence has been outstanding all season with Catherine Doherty, Jacqui Frisby, Leann Fennelly, Edwina Keane and Elaine Aylward impressing. They will need to be at their best against a star studded Wexford attack centred around Una Leacy, Kate Kelly and Ursula Jacob.