Kate hopes Barrs push the right buttons on Sunday

When you need big players to stand up, they normally do and show why they are top class at their chosen sport.

When St Finbarr’s needed someone to do that in this year’s AIB Munster Senior Camogie final, that’s exactly what Kate Wall did.

It was a close game all through, bar the start when the Barrs had to come from 1-3 to nil down, before coming out on top.

Wall was one of the players that drove her side on that day, and her contribution of 2-4 was telling, with her second goal winning the game for her side.

That win saw the Barrs win their first-ever Munster senior camogie title, but Wall said they took it step by step, and retaining their county title was the only thing on their minds at the start of the season.

“We met as a group at the start of the year, and we were setting out our goals for the year. One thing we all said was we just really wanted the county,” said Wall.

“Obviously, we won the county last year, and maybe some people would be looking ahead of that where as that was our first goal and our main goal.

“We hadn’t ever done it before, it’s a huge thing to win back-to-back counties. You could always say you aspire to getting to an All-Ireland final.

“But it wasn’t our focus, because Cork is really competitive and there’s good teams so you have to keep your eye on Cork first before anything else.

“If you don’t win the Cork championship, then the rest doesn’t happen, so you keep your focus on it.

“We broke it down and focused on the league first, and did well to win that. You get a lot of game time into players, you build your panel and then come championship, you have a squad.

“That’s the one thing that we felt about last year, players maybe might not have had as much game time compared to this year. You can see in the games, we’ve such a panel, there’s girls on the sideline that could start, and that’s kind of the difference I think with people coming on finishing games.

“We learned a lot from last year going out into Munster we said we had to be more physical. We focused on our gym work, we know we did it the year before, but we put more emphasis this year on our strength and conditioning work.

“We found that games in Munster were tough physical games, and you had to be prepared for that. The Newcastle West game was a physical battle, and maybe last year we might have lost a game like that.

“When we look back now like I think that game really made us it. It just bonds you so much as a team. There’s no skill involved, it’s pure heart.

“Then when we came to the same situation against Loughgiel Shamrocks in the All-Ireland semi-final, I genuinely had no doubt in my mind we would win. We went down a goal and a point, four points in extra time.

“Most teams would think it’s over, but I still didn’t think we’d lose. We didn’t panic, and I think that was testament to the Newcastle West game.

“In a game, a moment can help, even if it’s light-hearted. As we were going out for the second half of extra, extra time against Loughgiel, one of the girls, I think it was Eimear Hurley, started singing a song. We love the Sugababes Push the Button, that’s one of our songs, and she sang a bit of it, and everyone just relaxed and then Ciara [Golden] scored the winning point it was just unbelievable.”

Now Wall heads back to Croker where she hopes this visit will have a better ending than her last trip there with Cork, when they lost to Galway: “I think you must be excited, you can’t pretend that it’s not important because it’s so important.

“But you must manage your energy, a day like this can zap your energy, and that’s one thing that I would say as advice to people. On the pitch, you just focus on small moments. You focus on your first touch of the ball and then on the first 15 minutes to try and make sure the game doesn’t run away from you.

“It’s brilliant to be going there, it’s just really exciting, and you have to look forward to days like this.”

But Wall could be back there in the not-too-distant future as her twin brother, Philip, will be part of the Kilbrittain hurling team that are playing in an All-Ireland junior semi-final a week later.

“The lads are doing unreal, and they’ve had huge success this year, winning the Cork Premier Junior County and then the Munster championship,” she said.

“Phillip and I are so close, we’d always be together and talking about GAA nonstop, and I’m delighted for him and all the lads, they really deserve it. My older brother Jamie has been heavily involved as well. I’m just delighted that they’re getting the rewards from all their hard work over the last few years.”