Timing has always been Amy O’Connor’s strong point. Back in 2023, for example, she took just three minutes to score one of the most memorable hat-tricks in the history of the All-Ireland camogie finals.
A year later, she was celebrating again as Cork retained the title and while she suffered a serious injury in that 2024 All-Ireland final, the first of her long career, she pretty quickly put a positive spin on it.
At any other stage of the year, she figured, the Lisfranc fracture in her foot would have been a season-ender but, as it was, she had the entire winter to recover and rehabilitate.
And when she was finally able to start a game again, last weekend, it was another national final, this time the National League showpiece. Cork scored another significant win over Galway too, capturing a first league title since 2013.
“It’s a funny one,” said reigning All-Star O’Connor of the injury which left her in a corrective boot for 12 weeks, “if I tried to do it again, I probably couldn’t. It happened by pure chance in the All-Ireland final, someone just fell on me. I obviously played on and probably didn’t realise the extent of it until afterwards.
“It’s more common among rugby players. I don’t know how similar to a rugby player I am but hopefully I’m over it now and I can put it behind me.
“To be honest, I’ve been very lucky over my career in the 12 or 13 years that I have been there with Cork. Injury was bound to strike me down at some point. So I’ve been lucky, I’ve missed little to no games really through injury.
“Thankfully it happened at a good time in that I was able to get back in with the team early in the league and start training and build in a bit of contact and so on. It’s really coming good now at just the right time.”
The Munster championship, a stand-alone competition in camogie, begins for Cork this Sunday, against Clare in Ennis, and is another opportunity for O’Connor to fine-tune and sharpen up in advance of the All-Ireland championship in late May.
The downside is that the quick turnaround hasn’t allowed for much reflection on the historic league win, Cork’s 18th.
“It’s a competition we’ve been trying to win since I was there, 12 years I think, so it was nice to get over the line,” said O’Connor, who was speaking at the launch of the 2025 Kellogg’s GAA Cúl Camps.
“We were delighted, we were genuinely delighted. I know people look at the league and they mightn’t put much weight in something like that but we were absolutely delighted, especially the core of us who have been there for quite a long time. We were absolutely thrilled.”
That it came down to Cork and Galway again, just as it did at the end of last year’s championship, would suggest a big two has emerged? O’Connor isn’t sure on that one.
“I’d definitely say it’s more open,” she said. “You had Waterford in the All-Ireland final two years ago. Tipp are consistently making semi-finals and they won the league last year, so they’re putting in a huge effort up there. I think Clare will be really good on Sunday and we’re looking forward to that test.
Why do Leinster keep signing All Blacks?
“You can see that they’re putting in a massive effort up there so I definitely think it’s a lot more open than it has been in previous years.”
There’ll be a determination in Cork all the same to keep the foot down and to drive on for a three-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles later this summer.
To think they were talking about a Leeside drought before that 2023 final. That was the season Ashling Thompson battled back from an ACL injury. Last weekend, the 35-year-old was Player of the Match in the league final success.
“I would say she’s better than ever, to be honest,” said O’Connor. “She is like a professional athlete with how she looks after herself. She’s so fit. She’s 35, she doesn’t look it. She has the engine of a Rolls-Royce, up and down the pitch all day on Sunday. So yeah, I would say she’s better than ever.”
