By Eanna O’Reilly

AHEAD of Saturday’s All-Ireland camogie semi-final against Cork, Galway manager Cathal Murray was in no doubt that the Leesiders would present his side with their toughest challenge so far this season. The Rebels have visibly improved with each game during this year’s championship since their opening round defeat to the Tribeswomen in Athenry.

‘‘We’ve no doubt that Cork are going to be much harder to beat this time around than they were in any of the other games [this year],’’ he said.

‘‘This is our fourth time to play them, but we know that beating them three times won’t count for anything if we don’t win on Saturday. These are the matches that really count and the ones you train all year for. There’s no second chances, it’s a semi-final, and if you don’t perform, the year could be over for you.’’

The Galway boss believes that lessons must be learned from last year’s campaign when Galway came into the All-Ireland semi-final in a similar manner. The Tribeswomen were also the league title winners last season and went through the championship undefeated. However, a flat second half performance against Kilkenny ultimately meant the season concluded on an unsuccessful note.

Last year’s All-Ireland senior camogie final was the first in four years not to feature the Tribeswomen, and according to Murray, it’s certainly not something the Galway players wish to repeat again.

‘‘Last year we were going well, we were probably favourites against Kilkenny, but we ended up not performing and going out of the championship. Its really disappointing when that happens and your whole year is gone. It was very hard to be watching the final between Cork and Kilkenny and not being there, when we felt we were certainly good enough. But look, you have to perform on the day, and we just didn’t do it [against Kilkenny] last year.’’