Karen Kennedy: ‘They were toe-to-toe with us for the whole match, I expect no different on Saturday’
They may have brought one significant barren spell to an end earlier this year, but there is another major gap Karen Kennedy and her Tipperary camogie team-mates are looking to bridge this weekend.
Back on April 14 in Croke Park, Kennedy struck 1-3 as the Premier County claimed the National Camogie League Division 1A crown with a slender final victory (1-13 to 0-15) over Galway. By getting past the challenge of Cathal Murray’s westerners, Tipperary secured their first national title in the sport since their league and championship double of 2004.
Fast forward a little over three months later and it is Galway who once again provide the opposition to Denis Kelly’s side in an All-Ireland senior camogie championship semi-final encounter at Kilkenny’s Nowlan Park on Saturday (throw-in 3pm). You have to go back 18 years for the last time the Premier competed in an O’Duffy Cup decider – provincial rivals Cork defeated them on that occasion – and making a return to the biggest day in the camogie calendar has been the goal for the squad from the very start of 2024.
“When we set out at the start of the year, it’s the championship that everyone talked about and everyone is going to remember,” Tipperary captain Kennedy remarked at yesterday’s launch for the camogie championship semi-finals in Croke Park.
“It was great to get some silverware back to the county [in the league], but the ultimate goal was to win the championship. We’ll be really focusing on Saturday now.”
Whereas five straight wins helped Tipperary to automatically qualify for this weekend’s penultimate round fixture as Group 1 winners, Galway’s second-place finish in Group 2 saw them moving into the quarter-final stage of the senior camogie championship.
Yet the Tribeswomen subsequently beat Waterford to book a last-four spot and having played out such a close affair with their forthcoming opponents in April’s league showpiece, Kennedy recognises they aren’t a side that can be taken for granted.
“They’re a top class team and they’re always going very well at this stage of the year. They obviously had a great win over Waterford. I suppose we probably got lucky in the league final, so we’re under no illusions that we had the upper hand there or anything. They were toe-to-toe with us for the whole match and I expect no different on Saturday.”
Galway and Tipperary won’t be the only teams in action at Nowlan Park on Saturday as reigning All-Ireland champions Cork and Dublin will be fighting it out from 1.15pm for the other spot in the O’Duffy Cup final. Both of these games are also set to be broadcast live on RTÉ One and Kennedy believes this will give camogie the best possible exposure this weekend.
“That’s what you want, you want more eyes on the game and bringing it to a venue like that probably brings a better atmosphere to the game. Hopefully we can get a good crowd there and just get two great games for the crowd coming,” Kennedy added.