Cork camogie: Minor and U23 sides face tough ties

It’s a make-or-break Sunday for the Cork minor camogie side, while the U23 squad are on the road to Galway in the All-Ireland championship as they face the team that beat them in the final last year.

This is the first game for the U23 side in the round-robin stage of their championship as they take on the Tribeswomen, who will be fancied by many to retain their title.

While that is going on up the country the minors are at home to Kilkenny in a must-win game for them, with both games throwing in at 2pm.

If Cork lose, they will be out of the All-Ireland series and see their season come to an end. The Cats, Tipperary, and Galway are already qualified, and the final spot is between Cork and Limerick to see who joins them.

The fact Kilkenny are already through may work in Cork’s favour, but as manager Mossie O’Sullivan said they don’t like losing to Cork.

He said that there is little or nothing between the teams and knows they are in for another tough battle on Sunday. At minor level, there is normally a big turnover of players every year, so it’s effectively a new team every season.

“You must remember you bring in 30 girls and most of them wouldn't have experience at this level,” said Mossie.

“We have five on the panel from last year, and we brought in 25. Every year you're bringing in new girls, and I think the level goes up as well.

Everyone is doing work, the likes of Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and others are putting in a lot of work at the minor age, because they know that that's where they need to get players ready for senior and U23 teams.

“This year every game has been close. We lost by two points against Tipperary, we lost by four against Galway, and another day they could have went the other way as well.”

Cork play the Cats at Castle Road, and Mossie is hoping home advantage will work in his side’s favour.

“if you have a home crowd, you have a great atmosphere, and you know, playing at home adds to the excitement. It's our patch, it belongs to us, and we don't like losing there, so I think that's a mindset that has always been in Castle Road, which is a good thing, and hopefully we get the result.”

For the U23 side, they will be looking to bounce back from their Munster final loss last weekend against Tipperary at Cappamore.

RESET

With only a week between the games, it’s never easy to do, and Jerry Wallace and his management team would have had a tough week trying to get the players in the right frame of mind for their trip to Galway.

With the Cork senior side having no game until April 19, Wallace is likely to have a number of the senior squad members available to him for selection.

While on the opposite side, Galway are in the league final, so that may see some of their players not being freed up to play.

But as defending champions and with home advantage, this is going to be a really tough game for Cork to win.