Time is a great leveller. Sporting dominations rise and fall, chasers become the chased, and those once thought all-powerful eventually meet their match. Ask Brian Cody’s Kilkenny, Mick Fitzgerald’s Kerry, Jim Gavin’s Dublin. Maybe hold off on asking John Kiely’s Limerick for another while yet.
But there’s an old guard that has shown a vice-like grip on the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship, with this weekend’s semi-finals once again having a familiar cast of characters.
Of the four senior championships, camogie has proven the most closed-off of the lot, with just six teams having reached the All-Ireland semi-final stages in the past 10 seasons. This year’s fab four – Cork, Galway, Tipperary and Kilkenny – collectively account for 87.5 per cent of semi-final appearances since 2017. Three such outings for Waterford and two for Dublin make up the remainder.
For comparison, over the same period, nine sides have contested semi-finals in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Looking over the fence at the football, eight counties have made semi-final appearances in the women’s championship, with 13 in the men’s.
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Fifteen counties have featured in the senior ranks over those 10 seasons; nine mainstays (the aforementioned six counties in addition to Clare, Limerick and Wexford) and a further six (Offaly, Derry, Antrim, Down, Westmeath and Meath) who have climbed to and fallen from the top tier via promotion and relegation as the competition has ebbed and flowed between 10 and 12 teams.
The format change brought in this year sees 10 counties vie for the senior title, but among the seats at the top table, two are more akin to thrones, all but fixed in place. They belong to Cork and Galway, near ever-presents in the business-end of the camogie championship.
Looking at the last 10 years, the pair are the only counties to have reached the All-Ireland semi-finals each season – not just in camogie, but in any of the four senior Gaelic codes.
In further proof of the longevity of their pursuit of the O’Duffy Cup, you can take the last 20 seasons into account and the same sentiment holds true, Cork and Galway have always been among the last counties standing as rivals lined up to take their swipe. It was 2005 when Galway last failed to be among the final four, and for Cork, you have to roll back the tape a staggering 49 years to when they were beaten by Wexford in the 1977 All-Ireland quarter-final.
In action against the Tribeswomen this weekend, Kilkenny were the last to prize a title away from camogie’s big two. Brian Dowling’s side defeated Cork in the 2022 decider, in a repeat of their 2016 triumph, and fought off Galway for the 2020 crown. That great disrupter role had previously been held by Wexford, who claimed four titles between 2007 and 2012, including their three-in-a-row success of 2010-2012. Two of those final wins came against Cork, the others against Galway.
The new championship structure is unlikely to see an end to Cork and Galway’s proximity to the crown, with the previous season’s four semi-finalists now being placed together in Group 1. From there, the top two finishers earn a semi-final berth while the bottom two go to the quarter-finals.
It means that next season, even if their group campaigns go disastrously, Cork and Galway (as well as Kilkenny and Tipperary) will be just one jeopardy tie away from returning to the semi-final mix.
But while they may represent the old guard, Cork and Galway’s appetite to compete year in, year out has set the standard. Collectively they’ve claimed seven of the last 10 senior titles, 12 of the last 20 – no kindly draw or favourable championship structure will gift you that kind of dominance.
Challengers to the throne will have to remove them by force, and then the work begins towards standing the test of time.
All-Ireland senior camogie semi-finals:
Galway v Kilkenny, Semple Stadium, Saturday, 4pm – Live on RTÉ2
Cork v Tipperary, Semple Stadium, Saturday, 6pm – Live on RTÉ2
