Cats get their claws into Galway

Date Published: 16-Jun-2010

Kilkenny 1-14 Galway 1-11

Darren Kelly in

Nowlan Park

THE Kilkenny curse still clouds Galway camogie after the home side rallied in the final quarter last Saturday to secure their fifth competitive victory over the Tribeswomen in three seasons.

Unlike last year’s All-Ireland semi-final or this year’s league meeting, there was no dramatic last minute winner this time though a superbly worked goal shifted the game’s momentum. Instead, Galway played very poorly during the first half allowing the Cats a platform to build.

However, Noel Finn’s charges responded after the restart to play their way back and could have taken something from the game if it wasn’t for Kilkenny’s goal and some strange refereeing decisions. Aislinn Connolly opened the scoring for Galway with a fourth minute free but Ann Downey’s young side responded immediately with five unanswered points and also had a penalty saved.

Collette Dormer was fouled in the square after eight minutes, but Michelle Quilty’s resulting 20 metre effort was stopped by Sandra Tannian.This didn’t deter Kilkenny. Quilty sent over two further frees, Dormer scored from the penalty’s rebound while Katie Power and Denise Gaule added points to make it 0-5 to 0-1.

Galway would finish the first half with six wides and were also guilty of missing short passes, getting pulled out of position and defending loosely.In contrast, Kilkenny were moving the ball at speed, had excellent first touch and were controlling their areas consistently.

They were also finding their scores with Quilty picking off two further frees and Gaule adding two more from play. Indeed, had it not been for the Galway defence starting to close the space better, the Noresiders may have found more scores.

Three more Connolly frees kept Galway in touch while Veronica Curtin sent over their first point from play two minutes into injury time to ensure they’d trail by just 0-9 to 0-5 at the interval. Even though their opening half effort left something to be desired, the visitors were still in touch and needed to use the slight breeze to their advantage after the break.

Third quarter blitzes are Galway’s forte and they didn’t disappoint hitting 1-4 without reply while also having two other goal chances. Ann Marie Hayes started both moves – her first delivery went in behind the full back line to Curtin only for Catherine Doherty to close her down, the second was a short pass to Orla Kilkenny that worked its way into the danger area but Caroline Murray, Tara Ruttledge and Connolly couldn’t get a clean shot.

Connolly did find her range from two more placed balls before points from Ruttledge and Therese Maher levelled affairs by the 40th minute before the Galway outfit struck for what looked to be the decisive score. Maher’s free into the square saw a snapshot hit the woodwork but the breaking ball fell kindly for Brenda Hanney who rattled the net and Galway were ahead.The lead lasted just seven minutes.