Kilkenny get to wake up as All-Ireland senior camogie champions today, the second time in three years under manager Brian Dowling.
In what turned out to be a game for the ages, it was Kilkenny this time who would come out on the better side of a one-point defeat. It happened in the 2017 All-Ireland final, again in 2018 and last August saw the Rebels edge the Cats by the smallest of margins at the semi-final stages.
On Sunday, in front of over 23,000 fans of the sport, Kilkenny made it count and having watched from the sidelines for the 2020 win, Katie Power was very much in the thick of it this time out.
“It was incredible, I’ve definitely never played in front of such a big crowd”, Power told KCLR after the final whistle.
“The goodwill that we’ve got from Kilkenny the last two weeks, I’ve never experienced anything like it. To come out here today, do things the hard way of course and for once to be on the right side of a one-point game, it doesn’t seem real. It’s a bit surreal to be honest.”
Kilkenny did have to do things the hard way, despite opening up a six-point lead in the opening 20 minutes of the game. A Fiona Keating goal spurred Cork on for the final ten minutes of the first half, the sides going in level at the break.
Cork would take the lead early in the second half with the sides drawing level on eight occasions across the next thirty minutes, the last from a 58th-minute strike from Sophie Dwyer that found the back of the net. A pointed free from Denise Gaule, hard-won by Miriam Walsh, would prove the decisive score as the Cats held off the late Cork challenge with the clock running over injury time.
“There’s going to be some celebrations”, says Power about the team’s return to Kilkenny on Sunday night and subsequent civic reception for Monday.
“This is what it’s about. As good as 2020 was (Kilkenny’s All-Ireland final win over Galway in an empty Croke Park), for the girls, our families couldn’t even celebrate our victories and the victory itself. But by God have they stuck with us this year, when everything was thrown at us. I’m so happy for our families, our parents, our clubs to be here and to see how much this means to everyone. It’s just incredible.”
“We’re the lucky people that get to run around the field and put on the black and amber. There are young girls out there and they dream of this – this is their dream. We’re literally living it out. That’s why we play the game, that’s what these days are for.”
Follow the homecoming proceedings live on KCLR from 6.15pm this evening.
