Excitement is building ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland camogie final which pits 28-time championship winners Cork against Waterford, who are hoping to win a first ever senior title having made the final for the first time in 78 years.
Cork are seeking to put a stop to a run of narrow and heartbreaking defeats in the last two finals – falling to Galway in 2021 and Kilkenny last year – when they meet their neighbours at Croke Park at 5pm on Sunday.
Rachel Moloney, a five-time All-Ireland winner with Cork, says the Rebel county players will not be lacking for support in the lead-up to and on the day of the decider itself. The Courcey Rovers member expects her club colleagues Saoirse McCarthy and Fiona Keating, who are playing in the final, will leave Croke Park with memories that last a lifetime.
“It’s brilliant all the excitement and the support,” she said. “I remember any time Cork was in the final I would drive through my village to work and I would see the posters up. It would give you a lovely boost and it would make you a bit emotional.
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“Sometimes you don’t realise what you are achieving at the time. It is only when you look back or speak to the older men and women in the village that you realise. They are so proud that such a small place is being represented in Croke Park.”
Moloney says it has been a disappointing year for Cork camogie up this this point, but that “it is a marathon and not a sprint”.
“They won’t care that they weren’t playing well at the start if they win on Sunday. As a player your ultimate goal is to win an All Ireland,” she added. “They do have a lot of motivation. They have lost the last couple of All Ireland’s. Waterford have already beaten them. So I think, in a way, everything is falling in their favour and they will actually win.”
Growing club membership
Meanwhile, in the Déise, Waterford Camogie chair Sheila O’Donohoe says that club membership has doubled in the county over the last eight years.
She said the game was a strong force in the county in the 1940s and 1960s, but the form dipped in the 1970s and 1980s when many young women emigrated.
“Then there was a revival, probably in the last 20 years. Perhaps the centenary of camogie in 2004 helped with that. They won 16B and 18B All-Ireland titles and then slowly but surely built up to a junior All-Ireland win in 2011,” she said. “And then in 2015 we won the intermediate final. So all stepping stones. We have had schools success too. There is a lot of hard work and that has all helped.
“A win would be fantastic as it’s a big hurling and camogie county. There is a lot of good will. It would be huge. When we won the semi-final I got about 42 texts from people saying how good it was for camogie. This is brilliant for camogie.”
Another person hoping for a Waterford win is 79-year-old Elizabeth Barry, a former Waterford senior camogie player.
‘Unbelievable skill’
Ms Barry, affectionately known as “Weeshee”, told RTÉ that getting to the final means the world to local people. But she admits they are hoping to go one step further and bring home a first championship.
“Wouldn’t it be marvellous for a Waterford camogie [team] to win a senior All-Ireland? They are brilliant those girls, the skill that they have is unbelievable,” she said.
More than 30,000 people are expected to attend the All-Ireland camogie finals on Sunday. The numbers are expected to be boosted by the fact that this is the first appearance of the Déise in the final in close to eight decades.
The action begins at Croke Park at 12.50pm on Sunday with Clare and Tipperary facing off in the premier junior final. Derry then face Meath in the intermediate decider at 2.45pm before Cork and Waterford square off at 5pm.