Amy O'Connor: I didn’t realise I scored a hat trick until afterwards
HAT TRICK: Amy O'Connor shoots to score her side's fourth goal, and her hat-trick. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
It was no surprise to hear Matthew Twomey’s dominant emotion after winning their 29th All-Ireland senior camogie title was one of relief. Twelve months ago, he sat at the same table in the same Croke Park media room totally dejected after Kilkenny defeated them by a single point.
“Myself and Laura (Treacy) were here last year after losing it and I suppose we were drained and we couldn’t see how we would get over the line. When we came back this year we decided one focus obviously was to win the All-Ireland. We went through a bad patch in the middle of the year and I suppose a lot of people wrote us off.
“In our own way we used that as a spur. After we got beaten by Galway in Athenry (round-robin) we had a real long chat with ourselves. We were going into the Down game under pressure, the Clare game under pressure and every game we have been under ferocious pressure.
“Even today we were under fierce pressure coming up. These players are just incredible, the more their backs were to the wall the better they got. What we got today, they totally deserve. They have just been immense.”
Victory over Kilkenny and Galway installed them as favourites, so how did they keep a lid on expectation?
“Very easy, because we have a lot of hurt in us. We knew if we put in a big performance, we could be close enough to it at the end. All we were concerned about were ourselves. We had a few match ups but we were just concerned with our own performance. That is what we got today and it is incredible.
“It came down to each quarter, what we had to do with the ball, even the players themselves. It was every ball, every minute. We didn’t get carried away. It didn’t put us off (the tag of favourites). It didn’t make a difference.
“The same people I suppose were cutting the daylights out of us after losing to Waterford in the Munster championship and we lost four games in a row. So we were not concerned about anything else. All we were interested in was getting back to Cork with silverware.”
It was an up-and-down season, but they peaked at the right time. “Unbelievably like. We were saying since January that some team could get a hammering off us.
"There is part of you, would feel sorry for Waterford. We were creating goal chances, we got three against Down, we got three against Clare (both in group stage). Today, in the big day, to get five. It is brilliant.
“The defence was unbelievable. We got a penalty decision against us again. I can’t fathom it after having three against Kilkenny we should have got. Here we got one put against us. I can’t see what it was for. But look, the defence was absolutely outstanding.”
Amy O’Connor was one of the top trends on Twitter on Sunday night. That the Project Manager was the topic of conversation wasn’t unexpected, considering her hat-trick scoring record on the most important stage of all.
The honour of captaincy was bestowed upon the brilliant corner-forward after city divisional side Seandún claimed back-to-back Cork titles in 2022. It seems Amy likes the big day, because in that final she was crowned ‘Player-of-the-Match for her stunning 2-8 return.
“I didn’t realise I had scored a hat trick until someone said it to me after the match, which is probably a good thing because we were so focussed on the next ball, the next pass whatever it might be,” she tells.
“That might sound clichéd but that’s the way we drove it for the last three, four months. It was a building process, everything was a process. We played a certain way. We were adaptable the whole time and our focus was always on the next thing, the next thing.
“I didn’t really think too much about it in the game. It’s nice (scoring the hat-trick). It is probably something that you wouldn’t dream of really. I actually went practising frees yesterday, I don’t think one went over the bar. I suppose you do have days when everything you hit goes over.
“It is a very proud day for me obviously. I come from quite a small junior club (St Vincent’s) on the north side of the city (Knocknaheeny). We haven’t had too much success at club level. So it is nice to be able to do something like this and represent the club and the area.”
Every county goes through a bad patch, Cork were no different in this regard earlier in the year.
“To be honest, while people were saying we went through a bad patch, there was only once or twice that we actually played quite poorly. We actually performed quite well throughout that bad patch.
“I think the most important thing was that we stuck together as a group. We really trusted in what our management team was doing. And they really trusted us as players. So we didn’t panic. There was no panic within our group and I think that was the most important thing for this year.
"Nothing outside our group mattered. To be honest I don’t even think we knew we were favourites because we didn’t take any notice.”
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