Battling Galway surrender All-Ireland title to hungry Cats in physical battle

Kilkenny 1-14

Galway 1-11

STEPHEN GLENNON AT CROKE PARK

THE Galway senior camogie team made a brave defence of their All-Ireland crown at Croke Park on Saturday evening, but the concession of a goal from a penalty late on ultimately saw the Tribeswomen surrender their title to an unflinching Kilkenny outfit.

As contests go, this was as uncompromising as it gets, with the new rules this year allowing greater physicality in the game taken to the brink. This was a ‘no holds barred’ encounter and, when it came to the hooks, blocks and tackles, both sides tallies must have been off the charts.

Indeed, the discourse may be that Kilkenny, having lost five of the last six All-Ireland finals they appeared in since 2013, were just hungrier for the victory, but that would be an unfair – even lazy – assessment of a Galway outfit that gave it their absolute all. Quite simply, the Tribeswomen were not found wanting in this regard.

Over the hour plus of warfare – for this was a war of attrition – Cathal Murray’s charges were more efficient than Kilkenny in converting their scoring chances, but the key factor in deciding the outcome was that they didn’t create enough scoring opportunities.

By this reporter’s count, Galway manufactured just eight defined scoring chances in the second period – pointing six, hitting one wide and having another effort blocked down. For Kilkenny’s part, they had 13, tallying 1-8, striking one wide and spurning the rest.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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