By Gerry Johnston – Antrim Camogie
The Antrim Senior Camogie team are just 60 minutes away from reaching the Glen Dimplex Senior All-Ireland Championship quarter-finals. Victory over Limerick at Corrigan Park on Saturday will be enough for Antrim to progress and it would be a remarkable achievement for Elaine Dowds’ side to reach the knockout stages in their first year of Senior Camogie. This is the story so far.
When the draw was made, it was quite apparent that while there would be six teams in Group 2, the group had two tiers. Galway and Kilkenny were strong favourites to take the top two places in the group and in the end, they have justified that tag with both sides having 100% record ahead of their meeting this weekend. However, the competition’s structure left a door open for someone else and Antrim, Limerick, Down and Offaly will have all felt they had a shot of taking third place in the group which would come with a place in the quarter-finals against whoever ends up runner-up in Group 1.
Antrim made the perfect start to the group with a fabulous away win over Offaly. The game was tight early on but the Saffrons ended up winning comfortably by a score line of 4-18 to 1-10. The win was very important as it came against one of the teams expected to be in the race for third place. The other two involved in the race lost as expected with Galway beating Limerick and Kilkenny beating Down.
In the second round of fixtures, Antrim were on the road again, this time away to Ulster rivals, Down in Ballycran. This game really could have gone either way with both sides holding a lead inside the last 10 minutes but by the time the final whistle went, the teams were level and ultimately a 1-12 to 1-12 score was probably a fair result in what was a very tight game. Once again, Galway and Kilkenny took care of their business with Kilkenny beating Limerick and Galway beating Offaly. Four points from Antrim’s first two games was a good return and meant Antrim would almost certainly retain senior status for 2023 but the next two would be against Kilkenny and Galway so how would the group look after those games?
Against Kilkenny, Antrim put up a good fight. They had some moments themselves but in the end, the Cats came out on top winning, 1-15 to 1-9. Kilkenny were always expected to win the game but Antrim were resilient throughout and made Kilkenny dig deep for the points. As expected, Galway beat Down but it was the other match that mattered more to Antrim as Limerick and Offaly clashed. In the end, Limerick won which essentially ended Offaly’s hopes and set up an important meeting between Limerick and Down in Round 4.
Antrim hosted the All-Ireland champions, Galway, in Round 4 and it was easy to see why Galway are regarded as the best team in Ireland. As hard as Antrim tried, Galway were on a different level and ran out 2-16 to 0-6 winners in what was a top-class performance from a team at the absolute peak of their powers. Kilkenny beat Offaly comfortably but it was the Limerick and Down match that really mattered to Antrim and despite Down taking a big first-half lead, Limerick came back and ended up winning 2-11 to 0-12 to set up a winner takes all clash with Antrim.
As it stands, Limerick lead Antrim by two points so a draw would be enough for Limerick to go through. The difference between the two teams so far has been their respective results against Down with Limerick beating them while Antrim drew. Both suffered heavy losses to Galway while Antrim got closer to Kilkenny and recorded a more comfortable win over Offaly than Saturday’s opponents.
On paper, it doesn’t look like there’s a lot between the sides so home advantage could be crucial. To maximise that home advantage, we would love to see you at Corrigan Park this Saturday to hopefully cheer on our Seniors to a place in the quarter-finals.
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