Cork hope to end camogie league on a high in Galway and ease relegation fears

The only certainty ahead of the final round of the Centra Camogie Division 1A League is that Waterford are in the final.

They sit top of the table on 12 points, having won all their games so far and are safely into the league final.

After that the slide rule goes out as to who will join them and who will be relegated.

The clash of Kilkenny and Antrim could very well decide the relegation battle. If the Cats win, and they will be expected to, then Antrim will be relegated.

But if Antrim manage to pull off another shock win then it becomes interesting, with several sides, including Cork, in possible danger of going down.

So, there is still a lot to play for and a lot to be decided in the final round of games. Cork’s draw with Tipperary last Saturday means that both sides could still possibly be relegated.

If the Rebels lose to Galway and Tipp are beaten by Waterford, and both permutations are a possibility, then they will be keeping a close eye on the Antrim tie.

Cork are Tipp are both on four points and Antrim are currently on three. A win for Antrim could potentially see the Rebels or Tipp go down.

Unlikely to happen as Kilkenny know a win might put them into the league final so, with home advantage, the Cats will be expected to win and send Antrim down.

At present Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, and Tipp all still have a chance of making the final and until all games end it won’t be confirmed who joins them.

Galway and Kilkenny are the favourites to win and it could come down to scoring difference to see which one joins Waterford in the decider.

SMALL MARGINS

Cork have a slight chance of reaching the decider, but they would need to beat Galway, Kilkenny to lose or draw, and Tipp to lose for that to happen.

For now, all they can do in concentrate on the Galway game, throw-in 2pm at Kenny Park, Athenry, and see what happens after that. It would be no great shock to see Cork beat the Tribeswomen as games between these two sides, in general, have been close over the last few years. Cork will need to improve considerably on their performance against Tipp last Saturday to do that.

They were superb against Kilkenny two weeks ago and dominated against them from start to finish for their first league win.

The Rebels will be disappointed with their showing against Tipp in the second half in which they only scored two points from frees.

The wind was a factor, but it was still below the high standards they set for themselves to only score from frees.

Both manager, Ger Manley, and Laura Hayes, said afterwards that it simply wasn’t good enough and they have a lot of work to do before tomorrow’s game.

On the plus side from that game was the return of another start player in Saoirse McCarthy. Slowly but surely the injury list is starting to diminish, with only the likes of Amy O’Connor, Clodagh Finn and Ciara O’Sullivan now out, along with Ashling Thompson after the Kilkenny game.

Of those, Thompson is the one that is unlikely to feature until the All-Ireland series at the very least, as she has an operation on Wednesday on her fractured elbow.

How quickly she will be able to return won’t be clear for some time yet.

But for now, all Cork can do is concentrate on tomorrow’s game and hopefully get their second win of the season to round off their league campaign.