Orlaith Cahalane enjoying the balancing act of playing with two different clubs

Orlaith Cahalane had a marvellous year with the Cork senior camogie team.

The St Finbarr’s camogie star was last week nominated for an All-Star as a result of her performances.

Her late goal drew the Leesiders level in the All-Ireland final against Galway in August, but they would lose by one point.

Starting on a lighter note, speaking at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh at the inaugural Rebel Réalta event for people with additional needs, Cahalane spoke of her delight at being part of such an exciting new idea by Sciath na Scol.

“I think it’s an absolutely fabulous idea,” she said to The Echo recently.

“It’s brilliant to host an inclusion day for all the children who don’t get to play in Sciath na Scol every year.

“Hopefully it’s the first year of many of these. It’s an incredible experience for all of them to play at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“I suppose we all would have played Sciath na Scol growing up and it would have been one of the first major experiences.” 

Reflecting on the All-Ireland decider defeat is difficult for the forward, but now the dust has settled on the loss to Galway that denied Cork three-in-a-row, there are still positives to take out of the 2025 campaign.

“I suppose straight after the final, we were obviously very upset and disappointed, we didn’t have much time to take it all in,” Cahalane says.

“We had club football the week after, so straight into that. It has been all go since, but obviously you still think back and you’re like, 'oh, it was just a disaster of a day in terms of the result'. 

But I think our second half performance, we were all really proud of it, but we just didn’t have enough on the day.

“Hopefully everyone will come back again next year and we’ll go again.” 

Cahalane’s goal going into added time of the second half was the highlight of the day for Cork. It was a well taken goal and for a short period, it gave people hope that the three-in-a-row was still achievable.

“We’d have Amy Lee roaring at us every training session if we hit her with the ball. We were used to shooting on goal and being accurate, we were really focusing on goal scoring and it was just unfortunate how late it came in the game.

“I suppose I knew when Saoirse McCarthy was taking the free, she’d pick me out, so when I made the run, I knew I’d get the ball. I just aimed low and it went in. It was a bit late and we just didn’t have enough in the end to win.

“Galway came out way more physical than us. We had talked about how we were going to come out, but it just didn’t happen on the day.

“Overall, we had a great year. You’re just disappointed then after the All-Ireland, but to win the league was huge at the start of the year. Meabh, my older sister, had no league medal prior to this year.

EXTRA SPECIAL

“It’s just extra special to have family involved as well. I was really disappointed for Meabh this year, not being able to collect the All-Ireland trophy, but at least we won the league and Munster.” 

Cahalane is a talented dual player playing camogie for St Finbarr’s and football with Éire Óg. Her cousins Laura and Emma Cleary are also part of a talented Éire Óg team. Cahalane is busy at the moment as she eyes up success with her respective teams.

“We try to do all the same things. It depends on the match that we have at the weekend, which one we would concentrate more on per week. 

It's tough on the body playing both, but it’s enjoyable as well.

“We have really understanding management teams for both of my club sides. They know when we’re missing training, we’re not just sitting at home. We’re doing another session or we’re getting a recovery session in.

“It’s great that way that we’re able to communicate with both and keep them in the loop of what games we have and hopefully success will follow.”