Mix of youth and experience is helping Kilkenny to flourish- Norris
Kilkenny goalkeeper Aoife Norris will be hoping to fend off a fierce Galway attack in Saturday’s game
If you turn the clock back to this time four years ago, Kilkenny and Galway collided in an All-Ireland semi-final that went the way of the Cats before they duly went on to win the last of their All-Ireland titles.
While Laura Murphy got the credit for grabbing for the match winning goal, it was also a day where Aoife Norris produced a player of the match display in a superb individual showing as the Piltown stopper thwarted a number of Galway opportunities.
The Loreto school teacher has been a mainstay as the last line in the Kilkenny defence ever since and after a couple of tough years, she’s delighted to be back competing at this stage of the competition.
"It’s great to be back in a semi-final as it’s been disappointing to lose in quarter-finals over the last three years but we really wanted to get that monkey off our back and go a step forward and thankfully we did that the last day.
"Waterford pushed us to the edge and it took 80-plus minutes to get over them but we were just delighted to get the win in the end.
"A lot of work has been put in over the course of the year and we wanted to test ourselves and we knew Waterford were a top team in Tier 1 and also league and munster finalists so we knew it’d be a big test and it was and we had to dig deep but grateful to come out the right side of it and hopefully we can kick on from here".
With a new championship structure set up for this year’s campaign, Kilkenny took the tier 2 route and successive wins over Limerick, Offaly, Dublin, Clare and Wexford gave the Cats the belief and momentum which saw them flourish the last day out.
"There was a lot of benefits from the route that we took in the championship and having five games in six weeks probably helped us build up a bit of momentum and with the quarter-final being only a week after our last group game, we didn’t have much time to dwell on things and we knew the test that faced us as a result.
"We managed to take great confidence from winning the games and hopefully we can push on now", Norris added.
Being a school teacher in Kilkenny City, the goalkeeper is acutely aware of the underage talent coming through the ranks and with a few girls emerging from recent minor title wins, the senior team is getting the full benefit of the winning culture.
"There’s a nice blend within the team of both experience and youth, and we still have girls there that have been playing with Kilkenny for 10-plus years. So, mixing that with girls that are on the panel for their first year on the back of a successful minor campaign is great.
"The new girls bring great freshness and energy and that definitley helps the squad as a whole and even us experienced players nearly enjoy it a bit more which is very motivating every time you go out to train.
"We’d a new management come in with us in December and the panel ha been freshened up a bit with a lot of new players come in. There’s a lot of good development occuring within the county but other than that it’s just been a very enjoyable year and hopefully we can push on from here."
The two counties last met during the league and while Kilkenny won on that occasion, the Cats stopper knows that this is their biggest challenge to date.
"Galway are All-Ireland winners and they are the current league champions and added to that they’ve been in the last few All-Ireland finals, so we are under no illusions what test awaits us.
"They are a brilliant team with some experienced players all over the pitch but I think we are ready for it and we’ll give it a good rattle.
"Coming off the campaign we’ve had so far, it does give us a bit of confidence and we’ve gathered a bit of momentum going into a semi-final, but again we know Galway are a great team so we will need to be up for the challenge.
"The younger players are fearless too so it doesn’t really matter where we play at the weekend and we are delighted to be there so hopefully we can get big support behind us aswell", Norris finished.