Year in Review- All-Ireland winning season for Kikenny Ladies teams

While 2025 was a season of ‘what-ifs’ in many areas, you won’t hear that viewpoint from Muckalee or the Kilkenny minor camogie side after both brought home All-Ireland success to the county.

The Muckalee football story is one straight from the book of fairytales and that’s not overdoing it either after they accounted for clubs from Meath, Dublin, Galway and Kerry on their journey to winning the Leinster and All-Ireland junior football titles.

Any pre-conceived notions or opinion on how Kilkenny teams perform with the bigger ball was blown out of the water as they went on an incredible journey to landing a massive prize.

Even the Leinster success was very much against the grain as they were the first club from the county in some 21 years to win a title but it was a victory that was fully merited with key forward Kate Purcell helping herself to 1-1 as the North Kilkenny club battled to a narrow victory over St Colmcille’s.

That win proved to be only the beginning of the journey as they then accounted for UK side St Kiernan’s in the All-Ireland Junior Quarter-Final with Sian Bolger, Edwina Keane and Eadaoin Coady all grabbing goals in a 3-10 to 0-6 victory.

A landmark occasion followed afterwards as they played host to Galway and Connacht champions Menlough-Skehana on their own home ground in Muckalee.

Again the Kilkenny side defied the odds with goals from Ellen Lawlor, Katie Nolan and Sian Bolger as well as the backing of huge local crowd enough to see them prevail by eight points in the end.

The final then took place in early December at Parnell Park with Cromane of Kerry lying in wait and what a game it proved to be.

Kilkenny camogie star Katie Nolan produced an outstanding display on the day and it was her last gasp free that saw Muckalee create a bit of history as they became All-Ireland junior champions.

Nolan scored 10 points in total as she proved a real threat in attack with herself and Kate Purcell excelling against the Kingdom opposition.

Another dual-star Laura Greene set Muckalee on their way with an opening half goal before the side from the Kingdom battled back with a pair of majors from Roisin Griffin.

Even a missed Katie Nolan penalty couldn’t deny the new All-Ireland champions as even though extra-time loomed large, Nolan had the last laugh with her late free sealing the one point win and cue the huge celebrations afterwards.

Muckalee boss Pat McDowell summed up what the win meant to both the club and Gaelic Football in Kilkenny.

“You’d have to pinch yourself, that’s how we’d describe it really. It’s just unbelievable to be honest.

“The overriding emotion was we probably had it won twice and we nearly lost it twice and we won it the third time if you know what I mean!

“Every time you turned on the radio here, every time you opened the local paper, we were on it,” he said. “We were getting full headlines.

“We have big characters in the team and that stood out, as those big characters bring the other players into play.

“There are good football people in Kilkenny – absolutely. And there’s some lovely LGFA clubs here, you know.”

On the county side of things, there was another All-Ireland title returning to Noreside after the Kilkenny minor camogie side defeated Cork in Nowlan Park last April.

David Maher’s side showed all their class in a 3-8 to 0-8 success over the Rebels with goals from Ona Kennedy and Emily Phelan putting the seal on an eight All-Ireland crown at minor level for the Cats.

The victory was Kilkenny’s first at the grade since 2021 and arguably more relevant only their second national success in 10 years so it was definitely timely.

To add to the achievement, there was numerous individual accolades at the end of the campaign with Ona Kennedy (Windgap) taking home the player of the year while herself, Ella Walton (Tullaroan), Grace Brennan (Tullaroan), Rachel Phelan (John Lockes), Emily Phelan (John Lockes) and Molly Conroy (St Brigid’s) were also named on the team of the year.

On the club front, there was also provincial success for both Dicksboro and Danesfort.

The Boro reclaimed their county senior camogie title at the expense of Piltown before winning the Leinster Championship for the second time in three years after wins over Birr (Offaly) and Oulart the Ballagh (Wexford).

There was semi-final despair against Galway’s Athenry but it still proved to be a very successful year for the city side.

Just outside the city, it was a dream season in many senses for Danesfort as they won the county intermediate crown in both hurling and camogie. The hurling win over raging hot favourites James Stephens was definitely something to cherish and they soon added to the silverware when winning the Leinster title against Ratoath a couple of weeks later.

It was also a big year for Barrow Rangers (Junior) and Shamrocks (Senior) as they also took home county crowns.