O’Brien and Blair relishing final experience

By Joe Scully

Tipperary duo Grace O’Brien and Karin Blair are both looking forward to what will be their first appearance in a national final, when they take on three-in-a-row chasing Galway in the National Camogie League Division 1A final in Croke Park on Sunday.

“For a lot of us it will be our first national final, which is brilliant,” revealed Nenagh Eire Og’s O’Brien.

“It is very exciting, and we have been waiting a while to do it. I suppose having the experience in the Munster final last year is helping us for our preparation, but we are definitely looking forward to the final.”

However, Cashel native Karin Blair says they are not going to get too wound up for the game.

“We’re just treating this match like any other game,” she said.

“We will be preparing for it in the same way, zoning in on the things we can control, and not thinking too much about the stuff we can’t really control.”

While this will be the Premier counties first appearance in a league final since 2009, they actually qualified for the 2020 final which was never played due to Covid and O’Brien is looking forward to finally get the chance to finally play in a final.

“It was very disappointing that time,” she admitted.

“It was such a big thing to get there, and I think it was one of the only finals that wasn’t replayed after Covid, so we were very upset over that.

“It means a lot for us to get there this year, and we’re really going to relish the opportunity next weekend hopefully.”

O’Brien, who missed the first three games of the league through injury, is also delighted with the response of the team since the opening round defeat at the hands of Waterford, recording four wins in a row, including Sunday’s final opponents Galway.

“The defeat on the opening round against Waterford was a bit of a setback,” she added.

“We really wanted to win that day, but I suppose we have been learning from each match and getting better and better every day and have a lot of new girls on the panel, and they have all got game time over the league.”

Speaking of her own frustrations after missing the first three games of the campaign O’Brien revealed: “I got injured last year during the county campaign, but we couldn’t figure out what it was, but eventually we did, and I had surgery in October, which came at the right time of year that I didn’t have to miss much.

“But at the same time, you feel fresher watching the girls when their playing well particularly against Cork and Galway, and it was difficult sitting on the sideline hoping to get back in there, the lads have been brilliant keeping me involved in everything.”

Karin Blair who has been playing superbly well in defence, feels her side won’t take Galway for granted going int the final.

“We will take learnings from the last game against Galway,” she said.

“But you can’t look too much back at that because the final will be a totally new game, and we just got to focus on the key areas we can improve on and that’s the main thing.”

The chance to play in Croke Park is something Grace is really looking forward to.

“The experience of playing up there is huge,” she admits.

“Our first time playing there was an All-Ireland semi-final against Galway few years ago, and on the day we were all so nervous, we had never been in Croke Park before, so definitely that experience and the game there against Antrim last year has helped us and it’s not as scary and daunting as it was before, and hopefully we can really express ourselves on Sunday.”