CORK camogie's minor and U16s got their 2025 All-Ireland championships underway against Galway and Tipperary last weekend.
The Cork minors hosted Tipperary in the opening round of the Electric Ireland Minor All-Ireland Championship at Castle Road on Sunday. Mossy O’Sullivan’s side were coming off a 1-12 to 0-10 Munster final victory over Limerick and expecting an equally tough assignment against a talented Tipp panel.
So it proved as Caoimhe Stakelum twice found the net in the opening minutes and the Premier County changed ends 2-3 to 1-1 ahead.
Cork had the benefit of a strong wind in the second period and there was only a point in it as the game headed towards full time.
Valley Rovers’ Shauna Cronin came off the bench during the interval and made her presence felt by scoring three points. The last of Cronin’s scores was a converted 45 to draw the teams level four minutes into injury-time.
Neither side was able to add to their totals and it finished in a draw, 1-11 to 3-5.
Ali Mulkerrins (1-1), Shauna Cronin (0-3, 1 45), Rachel Murphy (0-3, 2f), Tara Goulding (0-2), Kinsale’s Catherine Murphy and Caoilainn Ryan (0-1 each) were on target for the home team.
Meabh O’Brien (Enniskeane) came off the bench in the second half for a Cork minor team who faced equally difficult challenges in the round-robin section of this year’s All-Ireland minor championship.
Staying undefeated against Clare and Limerick (both Munster championship) and now Tipperary (All-Ireland championship) means Cork are in decent shape ahead of a busy period.
‘We play Dublin in Castle Road in a fortnight’s time and then, two weeks after that we play Kilkenny away,’ Cork minor camogie manager Mossie O’Sullivan said.
‘They are the fixtures and we’re looking forward to it now. I suppose we got a boost from winning Munster and hopefully that will drive us on.
‘We’ve been keeping ourselves quiet, kind of not bigging up the Munster win (too much) because we had to refocus. Playing in the All-Ireland championship is a different mindset.
‘We have a very competitive squad. So, we like to see the girls playing games. They love training but most people love playing games and that’s what it’s all about really.’
There was disappointment for the Cork camogie U16As who lost by two points away to Galway in last Sunday’s Eir All-Ireland U16 Championship round-robin series opener. It was level at the short whistle, 1-1 to 0-4, with Galway’s solitary green flag keeping the Connacht side in touch. Despite a brave second-half effort, Cork lost 1-9 to 1-7 despite Léa Meollouin (1-2) and Stephanie Dwyer (0-5) scoring for the visitors. Carbery division’s Leah McCarthy (Kilbree), Cliona Harte (Barryroe) and Amber Bishop (Ballinascarthy) were involved in a Cork U16A panel that will face Kilkenny (home), Dublin (away), Tipperary (away) and Limerick (home) in the coming weeks.
