Kilkenny ease to big victory over Antrim in Belfast

Kilkenny made the 582km round trip to Corrigan Park to take on Antrim in the second round of the senior Camogie championship.

Played in glorious sunshine, Kilkenny were hoping the match would see them make it two wins from two to add to their big win over Limerick.

However, it was Antrim who started off the quickest with a point from Maeve Kelly. It took Kilkenny five minutes to register their first score of the game through Julieann Malone.

Malone was quick to follow it up with Kilkenny’s first goal of the game.

A pass out on the far sideline saw the Mullinavat player cut inside the Antrim defence before slotting the ball to the back of the net.

Aoife Prendergast would follow that score up with a point from a free and by the seventh minute Kilkenny had a sizeable lead.

Antrim are minus a lot of players that beat Kilkenny in the 2021 Intermediate All-Ireland final and are trying to bring on new young players. They found the pace and skill of Kilkenny hard to handle.

Roisín McCormick got a second point for Antrim in the ninth minute but this was from a free. Just two minutes later the Cats would raise another green flag, this time from Katie Nolan. Some nice link up play with Aoife Prendergast left Nolan one-on-one with Catriona Graham and she coolly batted the ball past the Saffrons goalie.

It wouldn’t take long before Kilkenny had another goal on the scoreboard. It all started when Aoife Prendergast lost control of the sliotar before chasing it down and getting possession. She hand passed the ball to Katie Nolan who was coming off her shoulder, Power went on a solo before passing the ball into Asha McHardy who sidestepped two Antrim players before slotting the sliotar into the Antrim net.

Kilkenny were on fire and they were in no mood to be charitable.

Peter Cleere’s side were hungry on Saturday, they hunted in packs, they chased every ball and there was no way they were conceding a goal, leaving netminder Aoife Norris was virtually redundant for most of the game.

With 22 minutes gone on the clock Antrim only had four points while Kilkenny had 3-7 and they would register a fourth goal before the interval when Julieann Malone got in for her second of the game.

Antrim did rally for the last five minutes of the half to leave Kilkenny leading comfortably (4-7 to 0-6).

The resumption of the second half was a mirror image of the first when Roisin McCormick got a score for Antrim but this was quickly cancelled when Kilkenny got 1-1 in the space of two minutes.

Sarah Barcoe got a point from play on the far sideline after she raced onto a breaking ball before hitting off her left hand side beautifully over the bar, she then raced into the Antrim defence before a low sliding grubber along the ground found its way into the bottom left-hand corner of the Antrim net, that was almost the nail in the Antrim coffin.

To Antrim’s credit they didn’t give up, they could have folded but they kept plugging away and were rewarded with points from Sarah Fyfe and Caitrin Dobbin but they would fail to score for the last 13 minutes of the game.

Sarah Barcoe, Sophie O’Dywer, Danielle Quigley and Asha McHardy would all register points for the majestic winners in a three-minute spell.

By the 51st minute, the game was truly over at 5-12 to 0-9 but Kilkenny pushed on for the remainder of the game and converted a further 1-3 before the end.

Teams and Scorers

Kilkenny - Julieann Malone (3-2); Asha McHardy (2-2); Katie Nolan, Sarah Barcoe (1-2 each); Aoife Prendergast (0-4, 0-3 frees); Laura Murphy, Sophie O’Dwyer, Danielle Quigley (0-1 each).

Antrim - Roisin McCormick (0-6, 0-4 frees); Maeve Kelly, Sarah Fyfe, Caitrin Dobbin (0-1).

Kilkenny - Aoife Norris (Piltown), Ciara Phelan (Dicksboro), Grace Walsh (Tullaroan), Sinead O’Keeffe (Thomastown), Kellyann Doyle (Piltown), Niamh Deely (James Stephens), Laura Norris (Piltown), Katie Power (Piltown), Miriam Bambrick (Barrow Rangers), Sarah Barcoe (Thomastown), Laura Murphy (O’Loughlin Gaels), Katie Nolan (St Martin’s), Asha McHardy (Dicksboro), Aoife Prendergast (Dicksboro), Julieann Malone (Mullinavat).

Subs; Sarah Crowley (Mooncoin) for Deely h-t, Keara Ryan (Clara) for Bambrick h-t, Sophie O’Dwyer (James Stephens) for Prendergast 38 mins, Danielle Quigley (O’Loughlin Gaels) for Power 48 mins, Emma Shortall (Clara) for Murphy 54 mins.

Antrim - Catriona Graham, Fay McIntosh, Megan McGarry, Clare McKillop, Erin Coulter, Eavanne Martin, Amy Boyle, Eimear Johnston, Siobhan McKillop, Maeve Kelly, Sarah Fyfe, Fionnula Kelly, Caitrin Dobbin, Roisin McCormick, Anna McKillop.

Subs: Janey McIntosh for Fyfe, Cassie McArthur for A McKillop, Dervla Cosgrove for F Kelly. Elen McIntosh for S McKillop, Maria McKenna for E Martin.

Referee - Brian Kearney (Kildare)

Note: It was very disappointing that, for a senior championship game, there was no match programme available.