How Cork camogie coped with losing vital players to return to another All-Ireland final with Galway
Cork's Ashling Thompson is challenged by Clodagh McIntyre of Tipperary. Picture: INPHO/Tom Maher
Sunday will mark Cork’s sixth consecutive All-Ireland camogie final.
Some individuals are up to 10 or 11 appearances in the showpiece event. Yet, look at the 20 players that featured in last year’s final and only 12 remain.
Whereas 2025 was all about the Rebel treble chase, which was snapped by Galway’s stoppage-time winner, there is an entirely different feel about this final rematch. The Westerners have the target on their backs now.
They are the ones bidding to achieve history by retaining the O’Duffy Cup. Cork want it back.
Ashling Thompson has spoken about making the days count. She will be hellbent on pocketing a seventh Celtic cross.
For new starters Ava Fitzgerald, Isobel Sheehan, and Millie Condon, it will be about winning their first on the field of play.
A quick reminder. Katrina and Pamela Mackey stepped away. Laura Treacy retired. Aoife Healy and Hannah Looney switched to Australia on AFLW contracts.
Kate Wall also jetted off Down Under following January’s All-Ireland Club final replay. After a series of injury issues, Clíona Healy opted out. Clodagh Finn is still working her way back from a long-term injury.
That cohort has over 50 All-Ireland final appearances between them, with 41 alone from the Mackeys, Treacy, and Looney.
With Laura Hayes relocated to midfield, Cork have rebuilt with four new starting defenders.
The half-back line is the launchpad of any team. Fitzgerald, Méabh Murphy, and Sheehan are among the new wave, yet they have stood up well to the barrage.
The other side of that equation gives Galway a clear area to target the next day. That 5-6-7 unit will receive its most rigorous test here.
With Aoife Donoghue dropping deep, the Connacht side created huge space down the middle for Niamh McPeake and their inside line to exploit in the semi-final, without fully maximising their returns.
It’s Cork’s task to ensure they cut down on those gaps.
Murphy is the anchor, but requires support from Thompson and Hayes tracking back, and captain Méabh Cahalane following out from the inside line.
The additional question created by such change concerns Cork’s depth.
They used just two subs, Orlaith Mullins and Hayley Ryan, in the semi-final victory over Tipperary. Only two of their subs that day, Mullins and Ciara O’Sullivan, have previously featured in an All-Ireland senior final.
What Cork produced in the semi-final first half has hardly been topped by any team this year. Sustaining that over 60 minutes against Galway is the next challenge.
Yet Cork have found the answers when they weren’t easily located. When Antrim came down and defeated them in MTU in February, an All-Ireland final looked far in the distance.
Only seven of that afternoon’s selection remain as starters, and just two of those, Libby Coppinger and Emma Murphy, hold the same position. Over time, Fitzgerald and Sheehan switched to the backs, Thompson returned to midfield, Condon to the forwards, and Méabh Murphy occupied that centre-back role.
Eventually, they were able to blend in some absent warriors and find a potent mix.
The three exceptions were 2012 (Wexford’s 3-13 against Cork), 2019 (Galway’s 3-14 against Kilkenny), and 2023 (Cork’s 5-13 against Waterford).
Cork-Galway finals have been pretty consistent of late. In the past four finals across 11 years, no team has raised two green flags. Cork’s tallies have been 1-13, 1-12, 1-16, and 1-13. Galway’s were 0-9, 1-15, 0-16, and 1-14.
That much seems unlikely to change. The Rebels’ only goal conceded was a consolation strike in beating the Tribeswomen during the group phase. Galway have yet to allow a goal in four championship games.
They kept the starting Kilkenny side to just one point and four shots from play last time out.
Galway succeeded in shackling Cork’s top scorers last year. The Leesiders must find a consistent method of ferrying the sliotar into their inside threats here.
How will Gavin Donegan referee his first senior final? For better or for worse, the officiating was a major talking point of last year’s final.
That much is beyond any team’s control. Either way, driven by memories of last year, Cork must match Galway’s intensity.
In the first half of last year’s final, the Tribeswomen forced 10 more turnovers than their rivals.
The vast majority of their scores came from that source of possession.
Attracting a record 10,311 to the semi-finals at Semple Stadium was a positive landmark. Getting back over 30,000 in Croke Park will surely be the next aim.
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