The plan was always for Galway’s journey to wind up at Croke Park this weekend, but for Áine Keane the story leading to Sunday’s All-Ireland senior camogie final against Cork spun off script in May.
In just the second minute of Galway’s championship opener against Dublin at Kenny Park, Keane jumped to try catch a dropping ball, something she has done thousands of times during her career.
“I landed on a straight leg and an opponent kind of came through me with her knee, and I just kind of hyperextended back,” she recalls. “It was really simple, I did catch the ball and I did take another step, but I didn’t go too far after that.”
Still, even though her left leg was sore, in the days immediately after the game Keane did not believe she had suffered a championship-ending cruciate tear. But she had.
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“Definitely until I got the scan I didn’t think my season was over. Unfortunately, the scan told me differently and I am in this situation now where I am three weeks post-op.
“I felt pain in my knee at the time, but it was more in the back of my knee from the hyperextension and a dead quad from the impact, but at the time I genuinely didn’t think I had done that much damage.
“I was 12 days waiting for a scan. From the moment I got injured up to the moment I got the scan, I didn’t think I had my ACL ruptured. It is what it is. Just so unfortunate, the first round of championship, you are training all year for championship and then that happens two minutes in.”
A commanding playmaking centre back, Keane’s loss could have derailed Galway’s championship campaign but the Tribeswomen won all four of their group games to advance directly to the semi-finals, where they beat Tipperary.
But for Keane, who captained Galway to an All-Ireland Under-16 final victory over Cork in 2018, there will be mixed emotions watching on as her team-mates face the Leesiders in Sunday’s senior showdown.
“I’m 23 now, you are thinking I need to keep pushing on in my career and trying to achieve as much as I can in my 20s,” she says.
“Last year was an unbelievable year for me experience-wise. It was the biggest role I had ever been given in a Galway senior team, playing centre back, and it was something I relished and I enjoyed learning the role.
“Winning Ashbourne [Cup] with UL then this year, you never think this injury is just down the line for me.
“It was a year that was kind of coming together for me in one sense, but that’s the harsh reality of sport, one minute it can be up and then it can be down just as quick, so you just have to take it as it comes and not take things for granted.”
Last year’s All-Ireland final was a close affair, with Katrina Mackey’s goal proving to be the key score in a 1-16 to 0-16 win for Cork.
The sides have played each other twice this season – with Galway winning in the group stages of Division 1A but Cork gaining revenge to come out on top in the National League decider.
“Going into the All-Ireland final last year, we definitely believed we could match them,” recalls Keane.
“To be honest, we believed we could beat them, but on the day that just didn’t happen.
“Every year is so different, and we have had such a turnover of players from last year too, there are four of last year’s final starting team missing.
“Niamh Kilkenny is one of those and she is a stalwart of Galway camogie. Having her involved last year was something unbelievable. For younger girls like myself going into our first final, having someone like her to go to and get advice from was unbelievable.
“We hope we can go out the next day and put in that same performance, and go one step farther, but we know how well we are going to have to perform if we even want to think about beating Cork on Sunday.”
And following on from the calls of camogie president Brian Molloy, who urged the public to turn out in numbers at Croke Park, Keane too hopes a big crowd will come through the turnstiles for Sunday’s triple-header.
“I don’t think we can emphasise enough how important it is to players to have support there,” she says.
“The fact I am on the sideline [at the moment], and even the last day in the semi-final against Tipperary, you could see how much impact the crowd actually had.
“It might be the smallest score or a hook or a block, but to have a crowd roar behind you and feel that support, that is worth more to you as a player than anything in the world.”
