Preview- Wounded Kilkenny collide with Tipp in big camogie clash

Kilkenny and Tipperary will kick off a huge day of GAA action when they meet in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon at 1.30pm.

The game is the first part of a huge double header between the counties with the All-Ireland senior hurling championship semi-final between the two rivals commencing afterwards at 4pm.

While the hurling affair looks 50-50 on paper, the Cats will go into the camogie quarter-final as big underdogs against the Premier County.

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Kilkenny have fallen to both Cork and Dublin at this same stage in the last two seasons and major improvement will be needed if the Noresiders are to avoid an unwanted hat-trick on Sunday.

Big home defeats to Waterford and Galway in recent weeks has left their mark although an away win against the Dubs in Parnell Park will have given Tommy Shefflin’s outfit a much needed confidence boost.

The squad is going through a period of transition with a number of players stepping away in the last few seasons and new blood coming into the team. The departure of legendary stars in the shape of Denise Gaule, Grace Walsh and Miriam Walsh has opened the door to new players like Sarah Barcoe, Caoimhe Keher-Murtagh, Danielle Quigley and Sophie Holden and while it may be a steep learning curve, they are still getting valuable game time at the top level.

In contrast to the Cats, Tipperary have been in fine fettle with convincing victories over Clare, Limerick and Wexford cancelling out a heavy loss to Cork.

Like their opponents they are also coming to GAA HQ with something of a point to prove after they lost out to Galway in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final by a point. With classy forwards in the shape of Grace O’Brien, Clodagh McIntyre and Roisin Howard as well as Karen Kennedy and Caoimhe Maher bossing the midfield area, they are a team that has many threats from different areas of the pitch.

While you only have to go back to 2022 for Kilkenny’s last All-Ireland success, Tipp are still chasing a first final appearance in almost 20 years with the semi-final hurdle proving to be a steep hurdle to clear for the Munster side.

In many ways all the pressure is on Denis Kelly’s team as they are the team with the better form coming into it but Kilkenny aren’t without a fighting chance and in Laura Murphy, Katie Power, Aoife Prendergast and Mary O’Connell they’ve an experienced core that can cause Tipperary big problems, but they need to bring their A-game.

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