Kilkenny camogie boss Brian Dowling sees the positives after league draw with Cork

Kilkenny camogie manager Brian Dowling was not too downbeat after he saw his side miss out on a final place in the Littlewoods National League on Saturday afternoon.

A 1-8 apiece draw with Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh was not enough to overtake the Rebels on the league table but the former All-Ireland winner was still taking the positives from the fortitude displayed into the teeth of the elements when falling behind.

“We’re disappointed we’re not in a League final but delighted with the performance,” Dowling remarked. “Coming down we weren’t sure where we were at. We were poor against Clare the last day and Cork had a massive win against Limerick so we knew we had to be on top of our game as usual when we play Cork, there’s never much between the teams. In fairness to the girls from Cork and Kilkenny, the effort and attitude they put out there in those conditions was unbelievable.

“After half-time, when Cork got the goal and Ashling Thompson tapped over a point straight after, it went to five up. It wasn’t looking too good then, I thought the floodgates might open. I said to Tommy (Shefflin) on the sideline, ’This is the time now, we’ll see what character we have,’ and in fairness to our girls, they stood up. To turn a good Cork team over like that and to push ahead and be winning going into the home straight was brilliant.

“Obviously we’re disappointed Cork got the equaliser but when Chloe Sigerson is standing over a free from 50 yards, there’s only one answer. It’s going to be a score. She’s a brilliant striker of the ball. But we’ve a lot of positives to take forward into the championship