Camogie Senior Championship Final Preview

Fr. Murphy’s go into thisyears Senior Championship Final having lost out on a place in the final lastyear for the first time in five years. They were beaten in the semi final byeventual winners Tara.

Having gotten off to a slowstart this season, the girls in purple and gold started to find form towardsthe end of the group stages of the championship, registering wins over Bros.Pearse and Croydon to finish second in the group.

Fr. Murphy’s were winners ofthe Senior Championship in 2007 and 2008, and were also history makers in 2008.They were the first team from Britain to win at championship level in Ireland, beating Donard Glen of Wicklow comprehensively inthe Leinster Quarter-final, before losing out to Shinrone ofOffaly in the semi-final.

There are quite a fewfamiliar names in the Fr. Murphy’s squad for the final, with Melanie Hogan, BrendaKerr, Eimear O’Higgins and Bronagh McLernon having been good servants to Fr.Murphy’s Camogie for many years. As is always the case in London, new players have come into the squad this year,which has meant the girls in purple and gold have gone from strength tostrength.

Tara have strong players all over the field, with manyrepresentatives on the county team, and their resilience will be difficult tobreak down.

Fr. Murphy’s beat Croydon ina tough semi-final, when they were far from their best. The week previous, theMurphy’s had beaten Croydon comprehensively but failed to find that form againon semi-final day. It was a very close encounter, and the girls in purple andgold wasted a lot of possession, but in the end they did enough to reach theirfifth final in six years.

Tara have yet to really betested this year, having won all their games so far very comfortably, but Fr.Murphy’s hope to hit form on the 3^rd July and wrestle the titleback.