Kilkenny ease to big victory over Antrim in Belfast

GlenDimplex Senior Championship Rd 2

Antrim 0-9
Kilkenny 6-15

By Martin Quilty

Kilkenny made the 582km round trip to Corrigan Park to take on Antrim in the second round of the senior Camogie championship.

Played in glorious sunshine Kilkenny would be hoping to make it two wins from two after destroying Limerick the previous week. Antrim started off the quickest with a point from Maeve Kelly. It took Kilkenny five minutes to register their first score of the game, it came from Julieann Malone. Malone was quick to follow it up with Kilkenny’s first goal of the game. A pass out on the far sideline saw the Mullinavat player cut inside the Antrim defence before slotting the ball to the back of the net. Aoife Prendergast would follow that score up with a point from a free and by the seventh minute Kilkenny had a sizeable lead.

Antrim are minus a lot of players that defeated Kilkenny in the 2021 Intermediate Al-Ireland Final, they are trying to bring on new young players and found the pace and skill of Kilkenny hard to handle. Roisín McCormick got a second point for Antrim in the 9^th minute but this was from a free. Just two minutes later the kittens would raise another green flag, this time from the St Martins pocket Rockett, some nice link up play with Aoife Prendergast saw Katie Nolan one-on-one with Catriona Graham and she cooly batted the ball past the Safron’s goalie. It wouldn’t take long before Kilkenny had another goal on the scoreboard, It all started when Aoife Prendergast lost control of the sliotar before chasing it down and getting possession, she hand passed the ball to Katie Nolan who was coming off her shoulder, Power went on a solo before passing the ball into Asha McHardy who like Jean Butler did for Riverdance sidestepped two Antrim players before slotting the sliotar into the Antrim net. Kilkenny were on fire and they were in no mood to be charitable.

“Ruthless Streak”

Kilkenny were hungry on Saturday, they hunted in packs, they chased every ball and there was no way they were conceding a goal, Aoife Norris was virtually redundant for ninety per cent of the game. With twenty-two minutes gone on the clock Antrim only had four points while Kilkenny had 3-7 and they would register a fourth goal before the interval when Julieann Malone got in for her second of the game. Antrim did rally for the last five minutes of the half to leave Kilkenny leading by a comfortable thirteen points 0-6 to 4-7.

The resumption of the second half was a mirror image of the first when Roisin McCormick got a score for Antrim but this was quickly cancelled when Kilkenny got 1-1 in the space of two minutes. Sarah Barcoe got a point from play on the far sideline after she raced onto a breaking ball before hitting off her left and side beautifully over the bar, she then raced into the Antrim Defence before a low sliding grubber along the ground found its way into the bottom left-hand corner of the Antrim net, that was almost the nail in the Antrim coffin. To Antrim’s credit they didn’t give up, they could have folded but they kept plugging away and were rewarded with points from Sarah Fyfe and Caitrin Dobbin but they would fail to score for the last thirteen minutes of the game.

Sarah Barcoe, Sophie O’Dwyer, Danielle Quigley and Asha McHardy would all register points for the majestic kittens in a three-minute spell. By the 51^st minute the game was truly over 0-9 to 5-12, but Kilkenny pushed on for the remainder of the game and converted a further 1-3 to leave the final score Antrim 0-9, Kilkenny 6-15

It was great for Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere to get his second victory of the campaign and he could afford himself the luxury of making six changes before the game to the team that played Limerick in round one. He has really made a difference to the squad this year, you can see the hunger of the girls and he has said so after the game

“The competition for places in that group is fierce, no player is guaranteed a place and if you perform well in training then you will get your chance” he did say however “We have two wins under our belt, but we know that there is stiffer tests to come and we’ll prepare now for Waterford next weekend”

The Déise had a very big win over Limerick last weekend and even though Kilkenny had the upper hand over Waterford in the League a few weeks ago, Chap Cleere is taking nothing for granted

On a side note it was very disappointing for a Senior Championship game that there was no programme for this game. For media who are trying to promote teams and the sport its one thing that should always be at a game,

Teams:
Kilkenny: Aoife Norris, Ciara Phelan, Grace Walsh, Sinead O’Keeffe, Kellyann Doyle, Niamh Deely, Laura Norris, Katie Power, Miriam Bambrick, Sarah Barcoe, Laura Murphy, Katie Nolan, Asha McHardy, Aoife Prendergast, Julieann Malone

Subs Used: Keara Ryan for Miriam Bambrick, Sarah Crowley for Niamh Deely, Sophie O’Dwyer for Aoife Prendergast, Danielle Quigley for Katie Power, Emma Shortall for Laura Murphy

Antrim: Catriona Graham, Fay McIntosh, Megan McGarry, Clare McKillop, Erin Coulter, Eavanne Martin, Amy Boyle, Eimear Johnston, Siobhan McKillop, Maeve Kelly, Sarah Fyfe, Fionnula Kelly, Caitrin Dobbin, Roisin McCormick, Anna McKillop

Subs: Janey McIntosh for Fyfe, Cassie McArthur for A. McKillop, Dervla Cosgrove for F. Kelly. Elen McIntosh for S. McKillop, Maria McKenna for E. Martin

Scorers:
Kilkenny:- Julieann Malone (-2), Asha McHardy (2-2), Katie Nolan and Sarah Barcoe (1-2 each), Aoife Prendergast (0-4, 3f), Laura Murphy, Sophie O Dwyer, Danielle Quigley (0-1 each)

Antrim:- Maeve Kelly (0-1), Roisin McCormick (0-6, 4f) Sarah Fyfle (0-1), Caitrin Dobbin (0-1)

Referee: Brian Kearney (Kildare)