Camogie: Galway itching to buck trend of losing finals to Kilkenny

READY TO GO: Galway’s Ailish O’Reilly, Niamh Hanniffy and Roisín Black after their league win over Cork last month. O’Reilly makes no secret that avoiding a third final loss in a row is providing them with serious motivation ahead of the All-Ireland Senior Championship. Picture: Bryan Keane

If Oscar Wilde was around and a camogie buff he’d be quick to remind Galway that losing one final to Kilkenny is unfortunate but losing two in six months looks careless.

Their four-time All-Star forward Ailish O’Reilly makes no secret that avoiding a third final loss in a row is providing them with serious motivation ahead of the All-Ireland Senior Championship.

The Oranmore-Maree poacher famously nabbed two of three first-half goals that downed the Cats in the 2019 All-Ireland final.

Since then, her side have lost last year’s final and this year’s thrilling Littlewoods League decider to the stripey women, leaving the Tribe with a pattern they’re now bitterly anxious to break.

“Yeah, losing two finals in-a-row is not easy to take,” O’Reilly admits.

“But we saw something similar happen to Kilkenny and they bounced back. And we saw it with Galway too in 2011-2012.”

As a primary teacher she’s quick to absorb lessons and points out there’s still only “a throw of a dice at the end of the day between the top three or four teams. The fact that we’re there or thereabouts means we know we’ve a serious chance. That makes it that bit easier to come back and give it a go.

“I thought we should have been up more at half-time in the league final,” she observes.

“In fairness to Kilkenny they came back and absolutely blitzed us after half-time and when we drew back level they found an extra gear we didn’t have. But as long as we learned from it, that’s the most important thing.” Spice is added to this intriguing rivalry by the fact that they’re in the same Championship group and meet next on July 31.

Cathal Murray’s side noticeably now includes the legendary Therese Maher in its backroom.

Her niece Carrie Dolan is usually chief scorer and they open their All-Ireland campaign against Westmeath today.

They also have another huge motivation - the loss of defensive stalwart Heather Cooney who suffered a cruciate injury in their league game with Clare.

It took a torn ACL to finally put a stop to Cooney’s remarkable gallop of 76 or 77 consecutive games in maroon.

“Heather’s a massive loss. I don’t think she’s missed a single game or a session since I started and is a player that doesn’t get half enough credit,” says another survivor of Galway’s 2013 All-Ireland victory about whom the same could be said.

She revealed that Cooney is very much still part of the squad and noticeably adds “we can’t do anything about it now but only drive on and win it for her.”

O’Reilly reckons the proximity of 2021 league and championship is ideal, especially after 12 months that uniquely produced an All-Ireland in December and a league decided late on a Sunday night.

“We’re used to usually a three or four-month break between February and June, so just four weeks between them is great and giving us plenty of motivation,” O’Reilly says.

“A lot of the league games felt like Championship, they were so intense and fast-paced and played in dry weather and ground.”

The thrilling climax, when Aoife Donoghue put Galway ahead in extra-time only for super-sub Steffi Fitzgerald to strike back brilliantly and Kilkenny to tag on two more scores, has certainly whetted the appetite for a summer in which Tipperary are expected to run camogie’s Big Three closest.

Round Robin groups: 1: Tipperary, Wexford, Limerick, Offaly. 2: Cork, Waterford, Dublin, Down. 3: Galway, Kilkenny, Clare, Westmeath Round 1 (today, Sat): Limerick v Wexford, Waterford v Down*, Clare v Kilkenny, Galway v Westmeath.

Tomorrow: Cork v Dublin*, Offaly v Tipperary. (*live streaming).