Abby Walsh hoping Banner crowd can lift Clare camogie side

Clare play Tipperary in the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship quarter-final on Sunday. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Clare camogie joint-captain Abby Walsh is optimistic her side will have big support behind them as the Banner prepare for a double-header at Croke Park tomorrow afternoon.

Played as the precursor to an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final clash between Cork and Dublin, Walsh and her Clare colleagues featured in an All-Ireland senior camogie quarter-final defeat to Waterford at GAA HQ on July 5 of last year. Whereas there was a wide mix of counties on that occasion, this weekend sees Eugene Foudy’s charges sharing a billing with their county compatriots.

Before the Clare hurlers take on Limerick in a tantalising All-Ireland senior semi-final, the Banner camogie team will battle it out with provincial rivals Tipperary for a spot in the last four of the O’Duffy Cup (throw-in 1.30pm). A large Clare following is due to be in attendance on Jones’ Road and Walsh is hopeful they can arrive bright and early on the day.

“We’re hoping that the Clare crowd will leave nice and early, and get behind us. It makes a huge difference having that noise and little wins on the pitch when you get the crowd behind you, they become big wins. Those momentum shifters can really stand to you in the game. They’d be as good as a score sometimes, so I’m hoping there’d be a big Clare crowd,” Walsh remarked in Croke Park earlier this week.

“I suppose we were all keeping our fingers crossed a bit that we’d get the Sunday and we’d get that double header. Hopefully it will be a huge occasion and one to remember for Clare camogie for a long time.

“It’s not often we get to quarter-finals. I’m not sure it has happened ever that we’ve gotten two quarter-finals, two years in a row. I’m really looking forward to it and want to just get out and play now.” 

In a new structure to this year’s competition, Clare found themselves in a six-team Group Two for the senior championship and hit the ground running with successive wins over Dublin, Wexford and Limerick. Kilkenny did get the better of them in their fourth game, but the Banner dug deep to overcome Offaly at St Brendan’s Park in Birr last weekend.

This helped them to earn second spot in the group and – by extension – a spot in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

The 2026 championship has been markedly different thus far for Tipperary, who were placed in Group One with Galway, Cork and Waterford - the teams that reached last year’s senior semi-finals.

There was a guarantee heading into this group that each team would be assured of a quarter-final berth at the very least and while the top two sides gained a direct passage to the last-four, three defeats from three ensured the Premier County had to be content with the former.

This also means Tipperary are in a difficult run of form heading into tomorrow’s showdown with Clare, but the versatile Karin Blair believes there is still plenty they can take from their clashes against camogie’s top outfits in recent weeks.

“Obviously the results didn’t really go our way so far in the championship, but we definitely do have strong performances put in that we can look back on. Even some of those matches, there was just the puck of a ball in it,” Blair acknowledged.

“I suppose when you’re going up against the top teams, there’s a lot of learnings you can take from them, but even from ourselves. We can really see where we’re at and in what areas we need to work on. It definitely was a huge benefit for us.”