After this weekend there will be two teams remaining in the All-Ireland club senior hurling championship and four in the football competition, but both the camogie and women’s football finals will be wrapped up, well in time for Christmas.
The never-ending debate on GAA fixture scheduling continues to generate debate and while we are closer than ever to getting the club championships completed in the calendar year, the reality is both the football and hurling finals are fixed for late January. The junior and intermediate championships in both codes will also run until next month.
And while there has been some recent controversy over clashes of fixtures in relation to the camogie and women’s club football championships, ultimately both organisations have fixed their finals to be played before the end of the calendar year.
There will be six All-Ireland club finals in total played this weekend, three in camogie and three in women’s football —junior, intermediate, senior.
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The showpiece camogie clash is the senior decider between reigning champions Sarsfields from Galway and first-time finalists Dicksboro from Kilkenny, with that match taking place at Croke Park on Sunday at 5.15.
And Dicksboro’s Caoimhe Dowling is fully in favour of the championship finishing in December.
“You’re not dragging out the thoughts of it, it’s not in the back of your head over Christmas,” says Dowling.
“Whatever happens, it’s done before Christmas and in the new year you can set goals again for the year to come, so I approve of it being played before Christmas and I’d say most of the girls do too.
“I couldn’t imagine having to wait until March to play an All-Ireland final now.”
Sarsfields will enter Sunday’s showdown as favourites but Dicksboro have already shown they have the measure of the defending champions. When the sides met for a challenge match during the summer in Galway, Dicksboro left with a victory.
“We took a big detour through the mountains on our way on the bus,” recalls Dowling. “We were late turning up and trying to get prepared.
“It’s mad to think we were looking at them on the tele last year and now we are the ones getting to play them in an All-Ireland final.
“You can see in their matches they are not the same team they were in that challenge match, so I wouldn’t be looking too much to the match that day.”
Dicksboro have proven to be a resilient bunch over recent seasons. They won the Kilkenny title in 2021 but after failing to retain it the following year some questioned whether they had the belly for the fight again this season. On Sunday they will play in the All-Ireland final for the first time.
“Losing last year’s county final was a big blow but I suppose that’s maybe been the driving force behind us this year,” explains Dowling.
“At the start of the year we weren’t setting an aim of getting to an All-Ireland final but trying to push ourselves to be the best that we can be. Starting from league to championship, pushing on through each game and just not taking anything for granted, taking each game as it came and trying to learn.
“For everyone to kind of dig in this year and believe in the goals we set for ourselves was a major thing.”
Just one more hurdle remains.
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