Galway ready to 'right the wrongs' of last year's final loss to Cork

Galway are determined that the camogie final rematch in two weeks’ time has a different outcome.

Galway's Carrie Dolan and Dervla Higgins celebrate victory over Tipperary. Pic: Bryan Keane, Inpho

Muted Galway celebrations. No shouting or jumping or roaring. The attitude was measured and spoke of this semi-final being a means to an end.

The Saturday scenes at Nowlan Park were worlds apart from the same venue this weekend last year. On that occasion, Galway also bettered Tipp to reach the decider. The margin then was a single point. Here, it was seven.

In last year’s final, Galway delivered a performance that pushed Cork to almost breaking point. Maybe Galway didn’t realise they were that close to standard-bearers Cork until they were level with them going down the stretch.

The westerners, in the end, came up three points short. They are determined that the rematch in two weeks’ time has a different outcome. This is a Galway group much further down the road than the crowd who shouted and jumped and roared when edging Tipp 12 months ago.

“Last year, we were never going well,” began Galway manager Cathal Murray.

“Cork beat us by double digits in the group. We had a week to prepare for the Waterford quarter-final. We were poor in that quarter-final.

“It was the first time we had come into a semi-final as underdogs in a while. Then the way we won it too, a point in the last minute. We were down for a lot of that game, four behind at the break, so it was a brilliant comeback.

“Today, we were on top for most of the game. It's a different feeling. It looked out there like we were the better team for a lot of the second-half.

“Also, we lost last year's All-Ireland final. It is huge for us to get back there. We are not going to celebrate getting back to an All-Ireland final, we have to go now and right the wrongs of last year. Whoever wins [that second semi-final], it is going to be a massive test, but one we are embracing.” 

Getting back there was no straightforward road. All-Star full-back Roisín Black, because of injury and travel, made her first start of the year in this semi-final. Niamh Hanniffy and the legendary Niamh Kilkenny are unavailable. 2024 centre-back Áine Keane and centre-forward Niamh McPeake both did their cruciate earlier in the campaign.

Stepping up in their first semi-final appearance were Mairead Dillon and Caoimhe Kelly, both of whom sniped a pair from play.

“To be honest, we showed huge resilience. We were missing five all year, so this team has shown huge resilience to even get this far. To put in a performance like that with players who weren't on the team last year but have really, really stepped up to the plate, that is massive for the group.

“Losing a final last year was really hard. That was the goal all year to get back there. We are not being euphoric about getting there because we don't want to lose another one. We are there now so we want to win it.” 

While maybe unhappy with the concession of Tipp’s first-half goal, which was the first dent in a six-point Galway lead being eradicated by half-time, Murray wasn’t unhappy at being level at the break.

“They got a huge amount of oxygen from the goal. We always knew coming down today that the crowd would get behind Tipp if we allowed that to happen. We were doing really well in the game, and they got a big bounce from the goal. We limited the damage against the breeze to four points after the goal.

“That breeze, we talked about it before the start, we felt it was a four or five-point breeze, so we said we would be happy if we were within two or three at half-time, but instead we were level and we probably felt we should have been ahead. Things were going well, we felt we were doing the right things, and we were in a good spot.

“Took our scores really, really well in the third quarter. When the wind is behind you, you can take the wrong options, shoot from too far out, but we delivered good ball to our forwards, they were out in front, and really worked the scores well.” 

Cork, again, are the last stop on Galway's road to glory.