Early season silverware a boost as Kilkenny eye up defence of O’Duffy Cup

It’s been a mixed year so far for the defending All-Ireland senior camogie champions Kilkenny. After an up and down league campaign, the Cats secured Leinster championship honours when beating Dublin on home soil.

Thomastown’s Sinead O’Keeffe is the captain of this year’s squad and the 21-year-old was happy to see the team get another Leinster title on the board.

“Any day you can go out and win some silverware it’s great,” she said, speaking at the launch of the All-Ireland championship in Croke Park.

“You set out your goals at the start of the year and you want the silverware and the cups so after the league, which we were relatively disappointed with, we wanted to give the Leinster a good crack. That’s what we did so we can take it forward into the championship now.

“We will be meeting Dublin again in a few weeks and we are looking forward to that to see what else we can bring and match their challenge.

“We’ve worked on different aspects of our game and fitness since the league and we are hoping it all comes together now at the right time and we can get a bit of momentum going to take us through July and August hopefully.”

O’Keeffe is only in her second year on the senior squad having previously appeared in the 2021 All-Ireland intermediate final.

As a result of her club’s senior success last term, she has been granted the opportunity to lead the Cats this summer, something she’s relishing.

“I just take these things in my stride I suppose and there’s a great bunch of girls there and it’s easy to be a leader in that scenario and every day I go into training I’m learning,” she added.

“I learn from any girl that’s 30 to number one so it’s great as we are all the same. We all feed off each other and push each other on - that’s how it goes.”

The University of Limerick student has only had a small part to play on the Kilkenny team thus far, but she can take inspiration from the likes of last year’s skipper Aoife Prendergast who had a match-winning impact off the bench in the All-Ireland final win over Cork.

“The lads have said that it’s a clean slate now going into the championship and they have made it clear that everyone has an equal chance of starting or coming into the team so it’s about taking any opportunity you get and keep pushing on - even pushing the girl beside you as that’s really going to help us going forward and that’s where we need to dig deep.”

Kilkenny will go into this year’s championship without player of the year Miriam Walsh after she was struck down with season-ending cruciate ligament injury. While she’s a big loss, her presence at training is a big boost to all the players.

“Miriam has been at every training session since she’s been injured and she’s continuing to inspire us all as she is the camogie player of the year after all,” said O’Keeffe.

“Just having her in the squad and encouraging and pushing us all on means we really want to do it for her as much as ourselves. We had the same story last year with Kellyanne and Aoife Doyle who were in the same boat - these things happen, so it’s about taking any opportunity that they can.”

Kilkenny open up the defence of their All-Ireland title on the weekend of June 10 and 11 with a home tie against Wexford before further group games with Dublin and Tipperary.

Brian Dowling’s team will be hoping to win back to back All-Ireland crowns for the first time since the 1990s when Kilkenny beat Wexford and Cork in successive deciders.

“Every year, no matter what you’ve won before, the aim is to get into Croke Park come August. There can be a lot of pressure around the talk of doing back-to-back or two in a row, but the more you feed into that the more you’re taking yourself away from it. Our main aim this year is to just take each game as it comes and set our goals and try to tick them off,” O’Keeffe said.

“Putting in the hard slog at training over the winter months is designated to get you ready for the championship and enjoying this time of the year is what you play the game for.

“We’re all really looking forward to the championship now and we can’t wait to get started.”