Cork clinched their 27th All-Ireland senior camogie title in dramatic fashion in Croke Park on Sunday, beating reigning champions Kilkenny with a late winning point in the seventh minute of injury-time.
Julia White’s strike, her first involvement after coming on as a substitute, earned Cork a 0-10 to 0-9 victory after Gemma O’Connor, a surprise starter having been injured in the semi-final last month, had levelled the match in the 60th minute.
St Catherine’s Orla Cotter hit two points to help Cork to success in the senior final.
In the intermediate final earlier in the day, Cork’s second team survived a second half rally from Meath to draw the match at 1-9 apiece and ensure a replay, set for October 1st.
Local connections Finola Neville from the St Catherine’s Club partnered Bride Rovers’ Jennifer Barry in midfield for the intermediate side. Neville struck a point and was named as Player of the Match for her impressive performance.
Kilkenny entered the senior match as the National Camogie League winners and were seeking to win their 14th O’Duffy Cup. Despite starting with a strong breeze in their favour, Kilkenny sat back from the first whistle and Cork duly raced into a three point lead.
The Rebel’s went into the break 0-5 to 0-2 ahead, however a much-improved Kilkenny emerged for the second-half.
Kilkenny opened the second-half scoring almost immediately and found themselves a point to the good before Cork’s first score of the half levelled the game. It was neck and neck for the rest of the match, with Kilkenny looking the likelier as they held a one-point advantage with the play entering extra-time.
With the match on the line, Orla Cotter managed to feed Gemma O’Connor and the centre-back drew Cork level with only injury-time to be played.
The match seemed destined to follow the intermediates to a replay, only for Kilkenny to cheaply give up possession in their own half to Julia White, who showed composure to secure another famous win for Cork in Croke Park.
The win gave captain Rena Buckley her 19th All-Ireland senior medal, between camogie and football, one more than Briege Corkery.
MEATH TOUGH OPPOSITION
Cork’s intermediate side too had a bright start in their match against Meath, launching into a 0-6 to 0-2 lead before their opponents rallied to level the contest five minutes before the half-time whistle.
Cork reclaimed the lead with a point and hit a vital goal on the stroke of half-time to reclaim their four-point advantage.
Meath, like Kilkenny in the senior match, started brightly in the second-half. They struck a point within 15 seconds of the resumption and drew the match level with a goal of their own minutes later.
Cork pushed their lead back out to two as Meath went 20 minutes without a score. Meath cut the deficit to one before Cork were reduced to 14 players and they relinquished their lead with a minute left to play. The referee then controversially blew the final whistle just as Meath looked set to score a late, winning point.
Westmeath overcame Dublin in the first match of the day, in the premier junior final.
Player of the Match Finola Neville from St Catherine’s Camogie Club, told RTÉ after the match: “It was a very tough match out there, Meath are a very physical side. I think both teams brought all to the occasion and nothing separated us in the end, I think it was a great game,” she said. “We’d a very good opening half but we let it slip. I think we showed great resolve there towards the end to hold on and get the draw in the end because it could have gone either way and we’re lucky we’ve another chance at it.”
