Best of the era battling for title

For the third year in a row, and the fourth time this decade, Galway and Cork are battling it out to land the biggest prize in camogie, the O'Duffy Cup.

The Tribe County come into this afternoon's showpiece as defending champions having halted the Rebels' three-in-a-row bid last summer thanks to Carrie Dolan's winner at the death.

They'll be looking to complete the senior double for the county after the footballers' triumph over Kerry last weekend. Cork were the last county to do so back in 2015.

This will be Galway's 23rd appearance in an All-Ireland final, with five titles in that time. They had their breakthrough in 1996, but the Connacht women had to wait until 2013 for a second title, adding a further three to their total since 2019.

They started the year in determined fashion, claiming National Camogie League honours in the spring, while their championship title defence has seen them win three of their four games. They saw off Waterford at Walsh Park in a tense encounter, before flexing their muscles against Tipperary when Niamh McPeake's brace of goals helped them to an 11-point win.

They overturned Kilkenny in impressive fashion in the All-Ireland semi-finals, leading by nine points with a little over 10 minutes to play before the Cats took some of the bad look off the scoreboard with a late burst.

This is Galway's best era in the game already but this group of players can truly cement their place amongst the best sides of this century by putting titles back to back for the first time.

It's not a rare feat with Cork (five times), Tipperary and Wexford having all managed it since 2000, but Galway have never done it.

Shauna Healy, who gave birth to her second child just over four months ago, wasn't going in for that as motivation when speaking ahead of today's game.

"Look, we haven't spoken about that," she maintained. "It's just about the performance and getting the best out of ourselves come Sunday."

It remains to be seen if that's the same line come 6 o'clock this evening.

Of the Galway team that made the breakthrough in 2019, five played a part in the semi-final win over Kilkenny; Sarah Healy, Aoife Donohue, Carrie Dolan, Ailish O'Reilly and Dervla Higgins.

There have been changes from the team which got them over the line last year. The Rabbitte sisters Sabina (thumb) and Olwen (cruciate) are injured, while 2019 veterans Emma Helebert and Ann Marie Starr have retired alongside Siobhan Gardiner.

We'll know by this evening if those players marked absent will have made a difference for Galway.

The one team that has beaten them in championship this year is Cork.

The Rebels had the chance to do the three in-a-row last year, battling back into the contest against the Tribes thanks to an Orlaith Cahalane goal as the game entered added time.

They couldn't turn that momentum into a victory however, and that has surely been playing on the minds of the players in the 12 months since.

Cork, of course, are the dominant team in camogie, the county that everyone aspires to be.

When you consider that the county directly behind them in the roll of honour, Dublin, won 25 of their 26 titles by 1966, it gives a sense of how far ahead the Rebels have been for so long.

They have 30 titles overall, 11 of which have come in the 21st century. Five times since 2000 they've done back-to-back titles, and they've only missed out on playing in the All-Ireland final three times since 2012.

They've won all their championship games this year en route to a sixth All-Ireland final in a row, with their five-point semi-final win over Tipperary built on first-half goals from Amy O’Connor and Milie Condon.

Like Galway, however, Cork are a different outfit from the one which showed up at Croke Park last August.

The Macky twins, Katrina and Pamela, stepped away, Laura Treacy retired, while Aoife Healy and Hannah Looney have made the move to the AFLW. Eight of the 20 players involved in the loss to Galway last year won't be involved today.

"There's been a huge turnover of players," Cork skipper Méabh Cahalane said this week.

"We've lost some key players on the panel with huge experience, many players that we would have looked up to growing up, so there's been quite a turnover.

"The Under-23s winning this year has brought energy and confidence to the group, and it was just great for that group of girls, so hopefully we can keep that winning feeling going and get another win on Sunday."

It's a huge amount of experience lost to the dressing room for the biggest game of the year, but the team hasn't been showing any signs of a lack of nous on their journey to today's decider. And it all started with a seven-point win over today's opponents back in early June.

Away from the action on the field, one thing that is definitely under threat is the attendance record for a camogie game.

The figure was set in 2023, when 30,191 watched Cork beat Waterford, but more might pay through the turnstiles this afternoon. The women's football decider drew 26,471 to Jones' Road last Sunday, but it's likely that the small ball showpiece will outdo it's big ball equivalent for the first time since 2012.

Last month's semi-final double header brought 10,311 to Thurles, also a record for that stage of the competition, so the signs are good for the game.

Part of the force driving that growth is this rivalry between Galway and Cork and today's game should deliver another close game; it's one to really look forward to.

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