Galway 1-17 

Kilkenny 0-12

By Tomy Devane at Nowlan Park

GALWAY produced a powerful second half performance to make it three wins on the bounce in the All-Ireland senior camogie championship at Nowlan Park on Saturday last.

Leading narrowly at half time, the Tribeswomen had wind advantage on the resumption and would outscore the home side by 1-10 to 0-7 to cruise home by eight points in the end.

This win leaves Galway joint top of Group 2 alongside Waterford with both sides meeting on Saturday at Kenny Park in the final round clash. The winners will qualify for a semi-final spot while the losers will feature in the quarter finals the following week in Croke Park.

In a nervy opening 30 minutes, scores were scarce as both defences were very much on top, but it was the visitors that made the better start, hitting two points from play in the opening minutes.

Sabina Rabbitte and Ailish O’Reilly were both on target from play to give Galway the initiative early on. Kilkenny eventually settled into the pace of the contest and Sarah Barcoe and Caoimhe Keher Murtagh registered scores to level matters after ten minutes.

Captain Carrie Dolan then gave Galway the lead with the first of her eight points 60 seconds later. Buoyed on by a big home support, Kilkenny then struck twice to regain the advantage courtesy of points from Aoife Prendergast and Murtagh.

Two important frees from Dolan saw Galway lead again narrowly four minutes before the interval but Prendergast soon levelled for the fourth time with the game heading into injury time. Crucially, the winners hit two massive points from play, Ciara Hickey and player of the match Aoife Donohoe both raising white flags to see Galway lead at the break, 0-7 to 0-5.

Kilkenny needed a better start to part two if they were to trouble the visitors and they duly did with points from Katie Power and Aoife Prendergast to level the game once again after 32 minutes.

Galway responded with two more points, this time Dolan and corner forward Mairead Dillon were on target. Prendergast was keeping Kilkenny in the frame with another free as just the minimum separated these great rivals with 20 minutes remaining.

Galway knew they needed a win to keep a semi-final place alive, and they duly upped the ante. Three unanswered scores from Dolan, Donohoe and super sub Caoimhe Kelly stretched Galway into a four point advantage.

Pictured: Galway defender Shauna Healy follows the flight of the ball against Kilkenny’s Steffi Fitzgerald during Saturday’s All-Ireland camogie championship group clash at Nowlan Park. Photos: Billy Culleton.