Camogie Preview- Malone return to boost Cats

Defending league champions Kilkenny return to the field on Saturday as they meet Limerick in the first of three games over the next few weeks.

Brian Dowling is entering his third season in charge of the senior camogie team and he is looking forward to getting going.

“We are looking forward to getting started and we had a disappointing end to last year so it will be good to get going again,” he said ahead of Saturday’s clash in Callan (2pm).

“Last year was a bit strange as we didn’t get going until April and everything was a bit more condensed so it’s nice to have a bit more structure to the year with the regulations easing a bit.

“We are back training a couple of weeks now and we are looking forward to the national league and getting some games under our belt.”

While they are the 2021 league winners, the Kilkenny boss is less concerned about results and more concerned about finding a few players during this year’s campaign.

“Our squad is going to be very experimental throughout the league as we are going to be without a number of players through injuries and club commitments,” Dowling said.

“A few players won’t be back for the start of the National League either so, like we did two years ago, it’s a good opportunity to look at a couple of players but we still aim to be competitive and we will try to win every game we can.

“The main aim for this league is to get as many players as we can and get new players out of the group that can push on for the championship and that’s probably the main focus,” he added.

“Obviously we are going to go out and try win every game we play but the end goal is to find players and give them the chance to perform.”

After impressing for the intermediates during their run to the All-Ireland final last term, O’Loughlin Gaels star Danielle Quigley has earned a call up while Julianne Malone is back after spending the last few years in Australia.

“At the moment Danielle is the only girl called in from the intermediate team, but Julianne is back with us,” said the manager.

“She was in Australia for three years and played with Kilkenny up until 2018.

“Julianne is flying it for us and she is a big addition with a lot of experience, but the panel is still open as we are kind of waiting for the club championship and the third level Ashbourne Cup to finish up before finalising a squad.

“We are just looking at players at the moment and we’ll probably bring in a few more over the next few weeks,” he added.

“We brought in a lot of new girls last year as well, with the purpose of giving them a year but with the way it transpired, the games were kind of thick and fast. We didn’t get a proper look at some of the girls, so we will certainly be doing that this year.

“We have been looking at players in training sessions and challenge games so there will definitely be a few new faces in our team for the first few league games,” he said. “Players who were on the panel last year but didn’t get the game time will also get their chance to step up and make their claim for the starting 15 come championship time.”

Malone’s return will come as a big boost with a couple of players still deciding whether to return to the squad ahead of a tilt at winning back the All-Ireland title

“There are a couple of players still deciding whether they will come back for another season,” the manager said. “We’ll give them a bit more time to decide but we feel like we have a strong enough panel to compete. With Julianne coming in it’s increasing our options.

“We also have players like Katie Power, who would have spent a lot of last year injured and did very little training, so having her fully fit will be a boost. While she can’t do 60 minutes yet, she’s moving very well and a lot better than last year so by championship time we are hoping she'll be back to 100% and that will be another bonus to us.

After the Limerick game, Kilkenny have further clashes with Cork and Clare but for Dowling he feels they would benefit from more games.

“We only have three games in the league and I would have preferred if we had more as I think there is a nice block of time to fit them in,” he said.

“The more games we have, the more chance you can look at players and we’d have no issue playing week in week out.

“ I’d love to have games and find out even more about players as three games makes it difficult to give every player on the squad a proper chance but that’s just the way it is and if you lose one game, you are probably already out of league contention as only one team goes through to the final.

“Last year there was quarter-finals and semi-finals before the final and that brought the team on a lot. I know there is a Leinster championship but that’s only knockout so you might only have one game.

“In contrast we’d be delighted with the championship structure this year as they are gone back to the two groups so we’ll have five games before the knockout stages which is brilliant and it’s also great for camogie to give it the proper exposure.”