Sarsfields Camog’s follow in hurlers footsteps

By Joe Scully

Karen Kennedy cut a delighted figure after Thurles Sarsfields completed the two-in-a-row in the Tipperary senior camogie championship after coming through a ferocious battle against Clonoulty-Rossmore on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a really tough battle out there, and it could have gone either way so just delighted to get over the line,” began the Tipp star.

“We knew it was always going to be a battle, we have never had an easy game against Clonoulty, and we knew today would be no different. They really put it up to us, and it probably took everything in us to get over the line, so really proud of the girls and the way they dug it out in the end so we’re delighted and will definitely enjoy this one.”

One of the key aspects of this Thurles Sarsfields side is their ability to score goals and the Tipperary star feels that this is a massive plus for her side.

“We have great speed and an attacking mindset within the team, and some of the girls when they get the ball they have only one thing on their mind, and that’s goals and we saw the benefit of that again today,” she continued.

“It’s something we have been working on all year and it’s the style of play we go after as well, and we got two goals today which helped us get over the line.”

There was a major heart in mouth moment for Thurles deep in added time when leading by two points Clonoulty were awarded a free which Cait Devane delivered an excellent ball right in on top the Thurles goal-mouth but they managed to stave off the threat and held out for the win.

“Those kind of moments you just never know what’s going to happen.” Kennedy revealed.

“I gave away the free as well so I was kicking myself over it, but you’re just trying to do your best to keep it out.

“It was the same last year, they never stopped till the very end, and we knew this year wouldn’t be any different and it really did take everything till the final whistle before we could celebrate and knew we had Bernie (O’Dowd Cup) coming home with us again.”

Thurles Sarsfields as a club is on a massive high, winning both the Tipperary senior hurling and camogie championships within a week of each other. And part of that success has been the real family ties linking the two teams. You have the four Stakelum brothers on the hurling side, with sister Caoimhe staring for the camogie team, and it was their father Conor manager of the camogie side.

You also have the Loughnane siblings, Laura, Nicola & Andrea playing their part too, with their brother Keith part of the hurling success.

And for Andrea, she was really looking forward to the celebrations.

“We will go away and enjoy tonight now, obviously Keith our brother won the hurling last week, and we couldn’t really celebrate with him as we had to keep the heads done for the week, so hopefully we will get to do a bit of celebrating now,” letting out a slight laugh.

For Andrea, a key player all year for her side, she was extremely proud of the fight and character shown, especially when Clonoulty came back at them towards the end.

“That just shows the character of the group, even when things were getting a littler bit hairy for a while, we just stayed going, stayed fighting, stayed believing in what we were doing all year and just a lot of faith and trust in the group,” she added.

“Also, for Loughnane she feels the 2024 final defeat to Clonoulty played a key part in the journey of this Thurles team and has made them the side they are now.

“We were devasted in 2024 after the final, and since then we have just put the foot to the wheel and have been driving on. Our younger girls have come up, and giving us that extra edge, and we have just been building and building ever since, and we have seen the benefits of it in the last two years, and now we will also give Munster a proper go and see where that takes us.”