With two of camogie’s big three in Group Two of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Championship, it was always likely that top spot and automatic qualification to the semi-final would be between champions Galway and Kilkenny.
Kilkenny will travel to Athenry needing to win to secure top spot but like Galway, are already assured of qualification to the knockout stages. A draw will do the hosts.
Both manager Cathal Murray and Glen Dimplex Player of the Match Carrie Dolan emphasised the policy of not looking beyond the next game as key to Galway’s progression after overcoming Antrim by 2-17 to 0-6 at Dunloy Cúchullains’ grounds.
Dolan excelled from placed balls in blustery conditions while Siobhán McGrath and Aoife Donohue goaled in each period, but it was the second-half performance, into the wind and with the result already assured, that impressed Murray most. “Antrim are a really good team, were really good intermediate champions,” said Murray. “There was a strong breeze in it and I know we were 10 points up at half-time but it didn’t feel we were going well but our second-half performance, we were really happy with that.
“We talked about it at half-time that we needed to start really well in the second half. The performance in the second half was really good and we’re just hoping that we can carry that into next week. We need to.
“Everyone outside (the camp ) was saying at the start it was going to come down to that game. We were taking every game at the time and doing our job. It’s there now, we’re ahead on score difference. It’s going to be a massive game in Athenry. The last two or three times they’ve beaten us there. Kilkenny are always going to be a huge test and we’re going to have to bring our second-half performance into it if we’ve any chance.” Dolan concurred with her manager on the initial lack of cohesiveness in the Galway unit and reasserted the message on treating every opposition with maximum respect.
“We had the wind (in the first half ) and they dropped one or two back,” Dolan explained. “It was hard to get through. The girls worked very hard. The workrate was decent enough in the first half. We won a few frees and got a few from play. We’d a couple of goal chances we could have got too, but we got the one in the first half and one in the second half so we’re happy enough with that.
“We started shaky enough, but the last 20 minutes we pushed on. Antrim are a very good team, they’ve very good forwards, they’re very fast. We knew we couldn’t take the foot off the pedal at any stage so when we came out in the second half, there were no excuses about the wind or nothing like that. We wanted to shove on and we did that.
“We’ve been taking every game as it comes and we haven’t looked past any team so our focus now goes to Kilkenny next weekend.”
