Cork have work to do ahead of camogie championship as they cope with loss of key players

A year ago it was a time of celebration as they were crowned league champions.

But a year on it has been a disappointing Centra Camogie Division 1A campaign for Cork. It started with an away loss to Waterford, followed by an unexpected home one to Antrim. That was followed by their only win away to Kilkenny and in their final home game they drew with Tipperary.

Cork rounded off their league series away to Galway, where another defeat meant they were looking over their shoulders at Antrim.

Had they beaten Kilkenny, then Cork would have been relegated, but thankfully, from a Rebel viewpoint, they didn’t and they faced the drop.

No one celebrates a side being relegated but ironically it was two games involving the Cats that were key to Cork staying up.

The Rebels played their best hurling of the league in their win over Kilkenny several weeks ago and then had to thank their archenemies for their win over Antrim.

There are reasons why Cork’s league campaign has been disappointing, with the number of players missing through injury, retirements and moving abroad.

Against Galway last Sunday, in their 0-18 to 1-9 loss, they were missing at least seven of the side that started against Galway in the All-Ireland final last year.

That said there was still no excuse for some of the mistakes that Cork made, giving the ball away too easily at times and some of their passing was off the high standards they set themselves.

There aren’t too many positives Cork can take from the league but one is the game time that new players were given ahead of the championship, which had to be done.

BADLY MISSED

Cork will also be hoping that the likes of Amy O’Connor and Clodagh Finn will be back in the coming weeks ahead of their championship clash with Tipperary at Thurles on April 19.

After the Galway tie Cork manager, Ger Manley, acknowledged how good Galway were on the day and said that his side have to move on now to the championship and put the league behind them.

Reflecting on the league he felt they got a few players out of it, one of their objectives with the players no longer available.

“I felt we got a few players out of it,” said Manley, “a lot of the younger players we got game time into them.

“We knew coming up here today it would be tough, Galway are a very strong team. I thought early on we struggled a bit, our midfield struggled, but then we sort of got into it a bit. I think whoever beats Galway will win the All-Ireland, that’s how good they are.

I thought our full-forward line were very good once they got ball into them. But look Galway were clinical, every opportunity they had they took.

“We had a couple of wides and it was disappointing for us. We thought we had a good week of training, but we’re only playing in patches.

“But it’s championship now and we have to look forward to it, a couple of games in the Munster one first before we are back up here on June 8 in the first round of the All-Ireland series. So that’s our aim now preparing for them.”