Late loss costs Tipp final place
CAMOGIE: Very National League Division 1 Round 5
Kilkenny 0-14
Tipperary 0-13
Report: Thomas Conway in Piltown
MATCH DIGEST
Player of the Match: Karen Kennedy (Tipperary)
SCORERS – Kilkenny: Denise Gaule 0-6 frees; Sophie O’Dwyer 0-5 frees; Julianne Moore 0-3.
Tipperary: Eimear McGrath 0-5 frees; Eimear Heffernan 0-3; Grace O’Brien, Cáit Devane (frees) 0-2 each; Roisin Howard 0-1.
Kilkenny aren’t All-Ireland champions for nothing you know. Two frees, two points, a Denise Gaule masterclass outwitted Tipperary in the dying seconds, depriving the Premier of a coveted league final place on Saturday.
Something similar happened last year, when Tipp were subjected to an agonising defeat to then All-Ireland champions Galway. For this same thing to happen twice in consecutive seasons is a crushing blow, a momentum killer. But such is the nature of sport. Tipp will bounce back, and they provided plenty of evidence to suggest so last Saturday afternoon.
Objectively speaking, Tipperary could probably have been considered the better side for the vast majority of this game. They played with verve and conviction, working the ball through the lines but also going direct. Kilkenny, for their part, were good too, illustrated by the fact that it was they who ultimately emerged with the victory. But really and truly this game was a war of attrition, a tit-for-tat affair which produced moments of fleeting brilliance and occasionally had the feel of a high-stakes championship encounter.
From a Tipp perspective, Karen Kennedy was immense, Eimear Heffernan was brilliantly effective, and Eimear McGrath, Tipp’s long-range sharp-shooter, was truly on song. Such a shame it was then, that Tipp departed the noisy and crowded Piltown venue with nothing but the hope that Cork would do them a favour the following day and beat Galway. In the end they didn’t, with Galway as one-point victors. Further agony for Tipperary. They’ve lost out on a league final place by literally the finest of margins. Sport is cruel.
Still, manager Denis Kelly can take heart from his side’s display. The game began as it finished, an ultra-tight, tit-for-tat exhibition of free-taking and sharp forward play, with McGrath opening Tipp’s account on five minutes via the first of her five placed-balls. Come the eleventh minute, the Tipp attackers would combine to produce arguably this game’s best score, Eimear Heffernan drilling over following a surging move which involved both Kennedy and Cáit Devane.
At that juncture Tipp looked electric, virtually brimming with confidence, but their momentum was soon stalled. Julianne Moore entered the fold to ping over the first of her three fine points and the Cats were up and running. Sophie O’Dwyer restored parity and suddenly Kilkenny started to look like All-Ireland champions. They repulsed the waves of Tipp attack, swarming the middle third and utilising a superb scramble defence to offset Tipp’s moves forward. Claire Phelan, like her opposite number Kennedy, was a rock of stability and leadership, conducting affairs across her half-back line and looking every bit like an All-Ireland champion centre-back in the process.
O’Dwyer and Gaule together delivered eleven of Kilkenny’s fourteen points. Tipp will have regrets about the free-count, but they weren’t conceding them for the fun of it. The back was under intense pressure from Kilkenny’s swarming forwards. A high rate of concession was, perhaps, inevitable.
But the Tipp forward line was impressive too, none more so than Grace O’Brien, who contributed a brilliant individual effort in the twentieth minute to pull the sides level at three apiece. Another point from Moore and an O’Dwyer free would ensure that Kilkenny entered the interval with a one-point advantage, leading 0-5 to 0-4.
O’Brien restored parity once more with another thundering effort some moments after the interval, whistling the sliotar over from near on halfway. Sure enough, within seconds Kilkenny had responded, O’Dwyer landing another free, and then another, before Eimear Heffernan slotted her second to finish a sublime collective move precipitated by Kennedy at the far end.
Two frees, the first from McGrath, the second from Devane, plus a nicely finished effort from Roisin Howard would award Tipp a two-point cushion entering the final quarter, but yet again the deficit was soon cut. Gaule popped over another free, and then, in a moment which seemed to capture the sheer force of Kilkenny’s devastating efficiency, Caoimhe Bourke sent a puckout straight into the hand of Moore. The ball had sailed back over the crossbar before the Tipperary keeper even had time to process her error. It was the Cats at their best, peak Kilkenny.
But the final chapter of this game was the most exciting. Tipp should have won it, they really should. The match had entered stoppage-time when Eimear McGrath landed what could only be described as a monstrous free from inside her own half, towards the corner of the 65-metre line. The ball soared through the sky and split the posts wonderfully, placing Tipp in a wonderful position.
But Kilkenny were a picture of composure. They trusted their system and worked two opportunities, each of which resulted in a free. The first was elementary from Denise Gaule’s perspective, a close-range effort which she was never going to miss. The second, from 65 metres, was that bit more tricky, but the 2022 All-Star nailed it with effortless precision.
The sickening thing about it all was, none of this should really have mattered to Kilkenny. They didn’t require a win, nor was a loss going to place them in any sort of jeopardy. It should have been immaterial. But when Kilkenny play Tipperary, the outcome always matters. Such was the sense last Saturday in Piltown.
TEAMS - Kilkenny: Aoife Norris (7), Michelle Teehan (7), Grace Walsh (7), Miriam Bambrick (7), Steffi Fitzgerald (7), Claire Phelan (8), Tiffanie Fitzgerald (7), Laura Murphy (8), Kellyanne Doyle (7), Julianne Moore (8), Niamh Deely (7), Denise Gaule (8), Asha McHardy (6), Katie Power (7), Sophie O’Dwyer (8).
Subs: Jenny Clifford (7) for McHardy (HT); Aisling Curtis (7) for Power (35); Aoife Prendergast (7) for S Fitzgerald (45); Sarah Barcoe (6) for O’Dwyer (55), Ciara Phelan (NR) for T Fitzgerald (58).
Tipperary: Caoimhe Bourke (Drom & Inch 7); Julieanne Bourke (Borris-Ileigh 7), Clodagh Quirke (Clonoulty/Rossmore 7), Eimear Loughman (Clonoulty/Rossmore 7), Mairéad Eviston (Drom & Inch 7), Karen Kennedy (Thurles Sarsfields 9), Ciardha Maher (Burgess/Duharra 7), Teresa Ryan (Borris-Ileigh 7), Eimear Heffernan (Clonoulty/Rossmore 8), Roisin Howard (Cahir 7), Caoimhe Maher (Burgess/Duharra 7), Eimear McGrath (Drom & Inch 8), Grace O’Brien (Nenagh Eire Og 8), Cáit Devane (Clonoulty/Rossmore 8), Niamh Treacy (Drom & Inch 7).
Subs: Courtney Ryan (Clonoulty/Rossmore 7) for Treacy (HT); Aoife McGrath (Drom & Inch 7) for Howard (HT); Mary Bourke (Drom & Inch 7) for Ryan (46); Caoimhe McCarthy (Knockavilla Kickhams NR) for Heffernan (59).
Referee: Justin Heffernan (Wexford).