Amy O'Connor: Cork getting all the tests they need in training

Cork’s five championship games have been won by an aggregate total of 100 points, but Amy O'Connor says internal games are road-testing this group

Amy O'Connor with 7 yo Zoe Kenefick, from White's Cross at the 'Meet & Greet' supporter session at the Camogie Grounds at Castle Road, Cork ahead of the All-Ireland final. Picture: Larry Cummins

Cork’s first 10 All-Ireland camogie titles were all won in bursts. There were trebles between 1934 and ‘36, and 1939 and ‘41, followed by the quadruple of 1970 to ‘73.

In the past half-century, the Rebels have enjoyed more consistent success than ever before. They have mopped up 20 All-Irelands, but never replicated that three-in-a-row feat. On Sunday, that rare opportunity is up for grabs.

Less secure groups might try to turn a blind eye to that fact altogether. This Cork crew won’t engage in such studied ignorance. But it won’t dominate their build-up either.

“You'd be fools not to acknowledge it. Sometimes you just have to embrace these things,” says top-scorer Amy O’Connor. “Like, how many more teams have the opportunity to do it?

“But it's not something we're going to focus on. It's another match. It's another final. Any final that you get to, you want to win, regardless of whether you're going for one, two, or three in a row.

“That's the way we look at it. It would be a bit stupid if we didn't acknowledge it, but it's not something we're going to focus on.” 

They arrive at Croke Park without the sort of major test a team might prefer, even if Waterford proved stubborn opponents in the semi-final.

Cork’s five championship games have been won by an aggregate total of 100 points. Like last year, the closest any team pushed them before the showpiece was nine points.

But O’Connor insists it would be wrong to accuse Cork of being untested.

“We have the 30-odd best players in Cork. We're training every night. We're playing A versus B or whites versus reds or whatever it might be in training every night.

“Our training is a really good standard, so we'd like to think that we're testing ourselves every night in training.

“We’ve played a couple of challenge matches between ourselves. No, I wouldn't look into that too much.” 

O’Connor is well accustomed to bringing out her best on the big day. Her 3-7 haul as captain in the 2023 final attests to that. She delivered another hat-trick this summer in the group-stage demolition of Wexford.

The sharp-shooter received some treatment in the semi-final for a shoulder injury, but it hasn’t hampered her since. Neither has the Lisfranc fracture in her foot, which she sustained in last year’s final and took longer than expected to rehabilitate.

O’Connor is a qualified pharmacist, but has been working for the last six years in technology for Workvivo, a company founded by her St Vincent’s clubmate John Goulding. With its positive work culture, she considers it the “best thing I ever did”.

On the field, one of her greatest privileges was getting to play alongside Gemma O’Connor. Now, she has the pleasure of being coached by the St Finbarr’s legend as part of Ger Manley’s backroom team.

“Gemma's probably seen as the greatest camogie player of all time. She's got nine All-Ireland medals, 11 All-Stars.

“She was my hero growing up. I would have been blessed to have played with Gemma once, but she was around for so long, I ended up playing with her for probably, Jesus, five or six years. And delighted to do that.

“Now that she's back in with us, Gemma calls things for what they are, and she's really brought something to the group this year. We're delighted to have her back.” 

Much like Gemma, Amy won’t be in any rush to step away from the inter-county setup.

“I'd love to continue for as long as I possibly can because I genuinely just love it so much.

“I love being part of a group where people all have the same goal and everyone's trying to do their best to do the same thing.” 

As for this weekend’s goal, they will be treading a well-worn path up against Galway in a repeat of the 2024 All-Ireland and 2025 league finals.

“We've been there before. We'll stick to what we know and stick to our game plan, whatever that might be on the day for Galway,” says O’Connor.

“Obviously, there's a bit more of a build-up to it. There's going to be more people at the games. It might be slightly different for the men's game, where there's loads of people going to all their games.

"But we're just trying to stick to what we know, and we've been there before. As Galway have.”