Next Saturday's clash of Galway and Tipperary will see two of the three unbeaten teams in Division 1A of the Very Camogie League go head-to-head, but according to Tipp centre-back Mairéad Eviston, who picked up the player of the match accolade in her team’s 0-16 to 1-08 win over Kilkenny on Saturday, the contest will be about much more than that for the Premier County.
The last four of the All-Ireland series has been something of a glass ceiling for Tipperary in recent years. They’ve reached the penultimate round six times in the last seven campaigns, but lost all six, including semi-finals in 2023 (versus Waterford) and 2024 (versus Galway) by a single point.
Next Saturday’s road trip out west will be a chance for Denis Kelly’s crew to continue to develop their mental readiness to shatter that ceiling, in the opinion the Drom & Inch player.
"We get into All-Ireland semis every year so we know that we’re there close enough, we just need to work on closing out games" said Eviston.
"Kilkenny came at us there in the last quarter and we just put our heads down and saw it out, so we just need to keep that attitude for the championship and keep the performances up."
Niamh Treacy and Caoimhe McCarthy also hurled very well for Tipp as they dominated the second and third quarters of their local derby battle, turning an 0-03 to 0-02 advantage into a commanding 0-12 to 0-04 lead.
Caoimhe Keher Murtagh found the net from close range for Kilkenny on 52 minutes but late points from Grace O’Brien and Róisín Howard ensured that Tipperary sealed a fully-merited win, putting their disappointing draw to Dublin in round one behind them.
"Yeah we definitely righted a few wrongs from last week. Our work rate was very good, we came out on top in the rucks, and we worked on that a lot during the week. It’s a pleasure when the things you work on come out during a match" said Kelly.
"We probably need to work on our shooting a little bit and some of our ball delivery wasn’t brilliant, but conditions are still tough enough. There was a couple of goal chances that we turned down for points, but that’ll come, it’s early in the year.
"There’s not much room for slippage after dropping the point the first day, so we need to go to Galway and grind out a victory. But it’s a great test and we’ll learn a lot about ourselves next weekend" he added.
While Tipperary have played both of their games in The Ragg, it’ll be a welcome first home tie for Galway, who followed up their narrow victory over Kilkenny in round one with an 0-15 to 1-09 win over Waterford on Saturday
Played at SETU Waterford on the southwest side of the city, Galway made a superb start to lead by 0-05 to 0-01 after hurling into the breeze for ten minutes.
The home side responded well however, holding Galway scoreless for 16 minutes and nudging their way into the lead with a run of five unanswered points of their own.
Mairéad O'Brien's point and a goal from Gostl established a 1-07 to 0-07 lead for the Déise women at the interval and when Beth Carton split the uprights to extend that gap after half-time, Waterford looked like they might have enough of a lead built up to hold on.
That wasn't the case however as Galway completely took over in terms of possession for the remainder of the half, and 31 minutes of play passed by before they scored again. By that time Galway had fired over eight in a row, with Carrie Dolan and Niamh Mellon leading the attack.
"Waterford attacked well from the half back in the first half and we tried to replicate that" said Galway manager Cathal Murray.
"We were that bit better in the second half, we played in very good ball and we got control of the game in the middle third, in the first half we just struggled and weren't operating at the level that we'd like, and that's why we were behind".
The other unbeaten side are the All-Ireland champions Cork, who cruised to an 0-20 to 0-10 win over Dublin at St Peregrine’s. The winners had nine players register at least one point from play, with Sorcha McCartan leading the scoring charge with 0-08 (6f). Laura Hayes, Aoife O’Leary, Clodagh Finn and Aoife Healy were also in impressive form for the Rebels, who were 0-13 to 0-02 ahead at half-time and 0-18 to 0-05 in front with ten minutes remaining, before Dublin came with a late rally.
Meanwhile in Division 1B, Clare made it three wins out of three with a 1-10 to 0-11 win over Down, Dervla Cosgrove’s goal was the difference in Ballycastle where Antrim edged out Westmeath by 1-09 to 0-09, and in Enniscorthy, Jessie Morrissey and Joanne Dillon found the net for Wexford against Limerick inside the first four minutes.
Those goals gave the Model County a 2-01 to 0-06 half-time lead after playing into a diagonal breeze, and by the end they extended that margin out to seven points, 2-11 to 0-10.
In Division 2A, Offaly are the only team on maximum points, with Mairéad and Grace Teehan their goalscorers in their impressive 2-10 to 0-08 win over Derry at Owenbeg.
