Smart second half shoots Kilkenny into All Ireland

Kilkenny 2-21

Tipperary 3-12

The Kilkenny Senior Camogie are back in the All Ireland Final in Croke Park on September 8th

The Cats won through to their sixth All Ireland in seven years after they survived a dogged fight with Tipperary in a cracking semi final in Limerick on Saturday

Megan Ryan scored Tipperary’s first point in the first minute from distance. Eibhlis McDonald slotted over the bar soon after following a well constructed move

Kilkenny were soon level thanks to a brace of points from their former All Ireland winning Captain Michelle Quilty

Driven Tipperary made their intent known as Ereena Fryday restored their lead

In the 7^th minute, things got better for Tipperary when Aoife McGrath scored a goal from a free off her own 65m line.

The ball appeared to fly all the fly to the net without a second touch. The Kilkenny keeper appeared to have lost sight of the ball looking into the sun

This left the score at Kilkenny 0-2 to Tipperary 1-3

Spurred Kilkenny

The concession of this goal seemed to spur on Kilkenny. They grabbed the next four scores to jump in front

The points flowed from Michelle Quilty (f), Katie Power & Anne Dalton before a hand passed goal from Michelle Quilty won them the lead.

The goal came following great work from Gaule & Power before the latter feed the sliotar to Michelle Quilty and rounded the goalie and hand passed to the net

Even though Miriam Walsh didn’t raise a flag during the match, she was one of the Noresiders most influential players in the opening half, winning most of her battles and setting up scores

Eibhlis McDonald & Anna Farrell traded points before Tipperary scored three unanswered points through Cait Devane (2 frees) and Niamh Treacy from play to put Tipperary ahead

Heading towards the interval, the losers cleared a ball from their defence to Kilkenny’s full back line. Defender Edwina Keane charged onto the ball and ran towards the opposing goal and split the posts from 40m

Michelle Quilty tagged on another Noreside point a few seconds later

A minute later Cait Devane equalised from a 30m free. Kilkenny, however had the last say of the half. Michelle Quilty scored a pointed free before Anne Dalton nabbed her sixth goal of the campaign, sumptuously scooping the sliotar over a diving Caoimhe Bourke after the Tipperary ‘keeper had made a brilliant full length save from Quilty

Extended Lead

That made it 2-9 to 1-8 at the change of ends

Kilkenny had use of the wind in the second half which would be a telling factor

On the resumption, Michelle Quilty extended the Cats lead, when slotting over a point from play

Cait Devane converted two frees for Tipperary in the 37^th & 40^th minutes to keep up the chase

Denise Gaule & Michelle Quilty tagged on a pointed free each to extend the lead to five

In the 47^th minute Cait Devane scored a 30m free for Tipperary

Kilkenny hit a purple patch, scoring seven unanswered points through Denise Gaule (3), Michelle Quilty (2, 1f), Katie Power and Kelly Anne Doyle to jump 2-19 to 1-11 clear

Eibhlis McDonald had Tipperary’s first score in 12 minutes in the 59^th minute, slotting over a fine point from play

In the 59^th & 60^th minute, Denise Gaule slotted over two points from play for Kilkenny when she was given acres of space by the Tipperary defence

Orla O’Dwyer goaled for Tipperary in the 61^st minute and Karen Kennedy struck a goal with the last puck of the ball, but Kilkenny had done enough

Kilkenny won’t be too happy with some aspects of their game. Their defending was sloppy at times

All Roads now lead to Croke Park on Sunday 8^th September at 4.15pm

Scorers – Kilkenny – Michelle Quilty (1-9, 5f), Denise Gaule (0-6, 1f), Anne Dalton (1-1), Katie Power (0-2), Anna Farrell, Kelly Ann Doyle, Edwina Keane (0-1 each)

Tipperary – Cait Devane (0-6, 5f), Aoife McGrath (free), Orla McGrath, Karen Kennedy (1-0 each), Eibhlis McDonald (0-3), Niamh Treacy, Megan Ryan, Ereena Fryday (0-1 each)

Kilkenny – Emma Kavanagh, Colette Dormer, Catherine Foley, Edwina Keane, Kelly Anne Doyle, Claire Phelan, Grace Walsh, Meighan Farrell (Joint Captain), Davina Tobin, Anna Farrell (Joint Captain), Katie Power, Anne Dalton, Michelle Quilty, Miriam Walsh, Denise Gaule

Subs – Danielle Morrissey for Michelle Quilty, Aoife Doyle for Miriam Walsh, Aoife Norris, Michelle Teehan, Niamh Deely, Grace O’Donnell, Edel Coonan, Steffi Fitzgerald, Mary O’Connell, Miriam Bambrick, Aine Phelan, Eva Hynes, Michaela Kenneally, Katie Brennan

Tipperary – Caoimhe Bourke, Clodagh Quirke (Captain), Julieanne Bourke, Eimear Loughman, Mary Ryan, Karen Kennedy, Aoife McGrath, Niamh Treacy, Nicole Walsh, Eibhlis McDonald, Megan Ryan, Ereena Fryday, Miriam Campion, Cait Devane, Orla O’Dwyer

Subs – Caoimhe Purdue for Niamh Treacy, Karin Blair for Miriam Campion, Grace O’Toole, Aoife Butler, Gemma Grace, Jean Kelly, Caroline Mullaney, Grace O’Brien, Laura Loughnane

Referee – John Dermody, Westmeath