Christy O'Connor on Cork v Galway: New blood and puck-out tweak has transformed Rebels

Five minutes into last year’s All-Ireland camogie final, Galway’s game-plan, and the ferocious intent they were applying to it, was clear and obvious.

After Cork goalkeeper Amy Lee hit a short puck-out to Pamela Mackey, the full-back was swarmed by Aoife Donohue and Carrie Dolan before being forced to offload a loose handpass that went to Galway’s Ailish O’Reilly.

It was the fifth turnover Galway had already forced in those opening five minutes. And on it went.

In an excellent analysis piece for The Irish Examiner two days later, Eoghan Cormican counted 25 first-half occasions where Cork were dispossessed or turned over possession under pressure, with Cormican noting how 1-7 of Galway’s first-half total of 1-9 came from that source.

Cormican also outlined how there were only two occasions where Cork’s running game was activated from a restart and a point from play was manufactured from that source. And both of those scores came inside the opening seven minutes.

Hounded

For the remainder of the match, Galway hunted and set upon Cork players in possession like predators stalking and devouring their prey. Mairead Dillon’s goal stemmed from Aoife Donohue and Niamh Mallon hustling Sorcha McCartan out of possession.

Galway were a much hungrier and more aggressive outfit than the side that had run out of gas, options and ideas late on in the 2024 final. Galway didn’t score for the final 16 minutes of that match but most of the damage Cork inflicted that afternoon stemmed from being able to work the ball out from the back to instigate their running game, especially off their short puck-out.

Cork had been used to doing as they pleased throughout last season – their aggregate winning margin in their five championship matches prior to the 2025 final was 100 points. 

Cork had mowed teams down from being allowed to work the ball up the field from their short puck-out, but they hadn’t met anything like the ferocity that Galway brought 12 months ago. 

And Cork weren’t ready for it.

Galway had tried to do something similar in the 2024 final but it was nothing like the tornado Galway brought 12 months later.  Cork were sticking to their principles but that rigid belief in their system was eventually their undoing. 

As Cork continued to try and work the balls through the lines, they repeatedly got bogged down in Galway’s trenches, especially in the traps that Galway had set on Cork’s second receiver in the middle third.

That enabled Galway’s defensive set-up to be ultra-solid while the supply going into the Cork inside forward line was nothing like it had been. 

Any ball that did go in was contaminated from incessant Galway heat out the field; Katrina Mackey, Sorcha McCartan and Amy O’Connor had been tearing teams apart but none of them scored from play in that final.

It was a harsh lesson for Cork. And they knew they’d have to learn from it – especially when they expected to be meeting Galway again in another All-Ireland final this season.

A change in personnel may have been another factor but Cork have had a distinct change of policy on their puck-outs in this championship; the majority are going long now, with Emma Murphy and Saoirse McCarthy the two prime targets for Lee’s restarts.

This is a different Cork team from last year but it is also a vastly changed Galway side. 

Siobhán Gardiner, Annemarie Starr and Emma Helebert didn’t come back, while Olwen Rabbitte is injured and Shauna Healy is not long back after only having her second child four months ago. 

Sabina Rabbitte, who came on in that final 12 months ago, is expected to be missing on Sunday because of a thumb injury picked up in the semi-final win against Kilkenny.

Seamless

Those losses threatened to leave a huge void in the team but their replacements have acquired enough worldliness to have been able to almost seamlessly replace that lost experience.

Niamh McPeake is an excellent player who missed last year’s final with an ACL injury. Áine Keane is also back from injury. Katie Manning, last year’s U23 captain, has been on the panel for the last four years.

Katie-Anna Porter captained this year’s U23 team but she played senior for the last two years.  Niamh Niland has been on the panel for a while too, scoring 0-4 from play on her championship debut in 2024, while Ally Hesnan came on in last year’s final.

If Galway were looking for another cause too ahead of this year, they got it in the form of a highly motivated manager Cathal Murray. 

Despite being the most successful manager in Galway camogie history, having led the county to three All-Ireland senior titles – as well as guiding the U23s to last year’s inaugural title - Murray was asked to reapply for the job last October.

Murray has always been a highly driven individual anyway but that gave him an extra edge in Galway’s pursuit to win back-to-back titles for the first time.

This season has been highly challenging too for Cork after they lost five of their starting team from last year’s final. 

They struggled early in the season when winning just one of five league games, before losing to Tipp in the Munster championship, but Cork announced their intent in their opening game of the All-Ireland series when beating Galway in Athenry.

After overcoming those early setbacks, Cork knew that their whole season would probably come down to meeting Galway in an All-Ireland final. 

And now that they’re facing their biggest modern rivals again on the biggest stage, Cork are pumped to heal the hurt that has lingered for a long 12 months.