An All-Ireland final victory in his maiden season as manager was just minutes away for Cork’s Matthew Twomey.
The Rebels battled back from six points down at the start of the game to draw proceedings level at half-time before working up to a two-point lead in the second half before Sophie Dwyer’s quick reactions on the 58th minute earned Kilkenny a much-needed goal.
“On the 54th minute I looked up at the clock and you are two points up and you are kind of saying, ‘Is this our day?’ and we are still trying to do the right things and then you get a break like that with the goal and it was very hard to claw it back”, said Twomey post-match.
“Fair play to Kilkenny they are an awesome team when they get into a position like that. We find it very disappointing because I can’t pinpoint the start again, to go 20 minutes without a score again, there’s no logical reason. We thought it was a freak thing with the Waterford game but I was so proud of the players, the character they showed to come back and be level at half-time.”
“We remained calm at half-time and tried to bring the process into it, the second half was nip and tuck and then to go two points up you should be finishing out the game but that’s it.”
“I thought Fiona Keating had one of her best games in a Cork jersey and she was given an awful role to mark Katie Power. Katie had an influence on the start of the game but Fiona was brilliant and our back line wasn’t as electric going forward, but we had to be cautious on what Kilkenny offered too we knew they were so dangerous.
“This is the second All-Ireland final we are after losing (in a row); we are getting sick of people telling us we are losing great All-Irelands because it means nothing to us. When you look at the players, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
