SATURDAY
AIB All-Ireland Junior Club Camogie Final
Brídíní Óga Glenravel (Antrim) v St Dominic’s (Roscommon), Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA, 2pm. Referee: Simon Redmond (Dublin)
Live stream on Camogie YouTube
Brídíní Oga won this title in January 2023 (for the 2022 season) and the Glenravel outfit’s goal threat was the key in a six-point defeat of St Canice’s of Dungiven (Derry) to secure provincial primacy this time around. Aimee Traynor contributed a brace and there was one each for Molly Woulahan and Eimhear McAleenan. Jaime Woulahan also produced a Trojan display.
Torie Edgar and Molly Woulahan scored first-half goals to establish a straightforward passage through to the final though Patrickswell (Limerick) put up a stern second-half resistance, that was held at bay as Edgar grabbed a second major.
St Dominic’s only lost to Killimor (Galway) by a point in a low-scoring affair in the Connacht final – 0-6 to 0-5 - and with the Galwegians putting it up to Camross in the intermediate semi-final, will know they have a chance of going all the way in the junior decider if their attack doesn’t stutter as it did on that occasion.
Crucially, the scoring prowess that eluded them against then returned when blitzing St Peter’s of Dunboyne by 2-15 to 1-3. Significantly, Áine O’Meara, who missed that provincial decider, registered 2-4.
AIB All-Ireland Junior B Club Camogie Final
Éire Óg Carrickmore (Tyrone) v St Kevin’s (Louth), NGDC Abbotstown, 12.45pm. Referee: Karol Collins (Galway)
Live stream on Camogie YouTube
Éire Óg are in their first All-Ireland final and the Carrickmore crew accounted for Fr Murphy’s (London) by 0-10 to 0-3 to reach the decider, with St Kevin’s beating Pádraig Pearses (Roscommon) by 4-10 to 0-3.
The Louth champions had defeated Setanta of Carlow by 2-17 to 0-9 to win the Leinster Championship, when Amy Murray was in sparkling form.
Éire Óg had gotten the better of Derrynoose in the Ulster decider in a thriller, prevailing by the minimum, 2-8 to 1-10, joint skipper Aoibhinn Daly setting up minor, Niamh McElduff to deliver a stunning goal to draw the sides level, before Daly split the posts from a free to snatch the honours.
SUNDAY
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Final
Athenry (Galway) v St Finbarr’s (Cork), Croke Park, 4.15pm. Referee: Ray Kelly (Kildare)
Live on RTÉ Player
Athenry scaled the mountain out west for the first time since 2009, taking out Sarsfields, the All-Ireland champions who had secured a fourth title in six campaigns 12 months ago, thanks to two goals from Eimear Keane.
They now have a chance of keeping the title in Galway and adding to their sole victory of 1977. They have lost seven finals though, so will be desperate to improve that conversion rate.
Athenry possess tremendous experience in the legendary Therese Maher (now Donohue) and Jessica Gill, a fellow former All-Star and goalscorer in the semi-final victory over 2023 champions Dicksboro (Kilkenny). Two-time All-Star and 2025 Player of the Year nominee, Dervla Higgins is the spiritual leaderthough, an inspirational captain. Fellow Galway All-Ireland winner Sabina Rabbitte, daughter of manager Joe, is a huge threat in attack.
It is a first club final for St Finbarr’s but there are no concerns about experience or calibre. Sorcha McCartan is their leading scorer was player of the match when they defeated St Catherine’s to retain their county title. Kate Wall broke De La salle hearts with a late goal in the Munster final, finishing with 2-4 in the two-point success.
Amazingly, their All-Ireland semi-final was even tighter and more dramatic and this time, it was Ciara Golden that proved the match winner after two periods of extra time and a 45s shootout on the cards, denying Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim).
Orlaith Cahalane excelled throughout, along with sister Méabh and with Gráinne recovered from the Achilles tendon injury suffered in the build-up to the 2024 All-Ireland in training with Cork, the family had four sisters involved at the final whistle as Kate also entered the fray.
AIB All-Ireland Intermediate Club Camogie Final
Ballincollig (Cork) v Camross (Laois), Croke Park, 2pm. Referee: Joe Mullins (Clare)
Live on RTÉ 2 and RTÉ Player
Ballincollig are the first Cork team to reach a final outside of the senior club championship, which is quite something. Mike O’Brien’s charged ensured their return to senior status when overcoming Ballygarvan by four points, skipper Linda Dorgan and fellow veteran Leah Weste shining along with this year’s Cork U16 captain, Leah Hannigan providing a significant cameo, scoring five points off the bench to be named player of the match.
A strong second half performance that included a brace of goals from Hannigan turned the Munster final against Moycarkey Borris (Tipperary), while it was Weste and Dorgan that proved the driving force in the hard-fought defeat of Eglish (Tyrone) in the All-Ireland semi-final, and Hannigan shaking the opposition rigging once more.
Camross are the first Laois side to reach final since Harps completed a three-in-a-row in 2008. Arien Delaney’s squad ended a 24-year wait to return to the provincial top table when cruising to a 12-point victory over Na Fianna. That was their fourth game on the trot, a sequence that included dethroning Leinster champions St Brigid’s to secure county honours for the first time in four years.
Laois star Aimee Collier is a key contributor but while in charge of frees in county colours, yields to former long-serving O’Moore captain, Sarah-Anne Fitzgerald for those duties when it comes to the club. Collier was crowned Camogie’s Player of the Year for the Premier Junior code the night before Camross won the Leinster title, Kirsten Keenan ripping the Meath representatives apart with four goals
They had to work much harder against Killimor (Galway) to clear the penultimate obstacle, before chiselling out a five-point success. Gráinne Delaney was brilliant, slotting five points from play, and an Erin Walsh goal kept the Tribeswomen at bay.
Stories abound on AIB All-Ireland club camogie finals weekend
By Kevin Egan
It is a reflection of how we consume sport in the modern era that the question of who is the best team or individual in any given year is rarely enough to capture the public’s imagination anymore.
Who cares about the top dog, when the conversation quickly turns to the GOAT? (That’s the Greatest Of All Time, for those of you who don’t have anyone under 40 in your family!)
The public doesn’t just want a winner, they want a record breaker. It could be the fastest, the youngest, the oldest, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s new and unprecedented, to capture out shortened attention spans.
Or maybe it’s all about the story. That narrative could be an incredible comeback, a triumph against the odds, something to make it special. When it comes to the fight for column inches, “Team wins Championship” doesn’t always cut it. After all, that happened before.
The moments, on the other hand, have never been more eternal. Social media leaves us consuming sport in 20- and 30-second bites; take this year’s All-Ireland senior championship as an example.
Galway’s win over Cork in the All-Ireland senior camogie final was celebrated as an against-the-head win for the Tribeswomen over an overwhelming favourite. In time it will either be perceived as a bump in the road for a Cork side that will go on to dominate the decade from start to finish, or perhaps that defeat could mark the changing of the guard. The result we know, the context in which it will be seen in a generation has yet to be revealed.
Carrie Dolan’s free to win the game, however? Even if you were nowhere near Croke Park and your TV was turned off on that balmy August Sunday, you’ve seen that sensational strike a dozen times on your phone since.
The beauty of this weekend’s four AIB All-Ireland club camogie finals is that there are stories everywhere, adding extra spice and garnish to the meaty question of which quartet of clubs will be crowned national champions.
Down by the Lee, and around Togher in particular, you don’t need to be told about the rich history associated with the famous blue jersey of St Finbarr’s. All-Ireland wins have been earned by their men in both codes, including some of the most famous names in the history of Gaelic games.
Next year, the club will celebrate 150 years in existence and the burning desire to etch their name onto the Bill & Agnes Carroll Cup to celebrate that milestone has been cited more than a few times by Barrs’ players in their run to this final. Team captain Stephanie Punch shot down the idea that they perceived the soil under their feet as “bonus territory,” despite the fact that their win over De La Salle (Waterford) last month earned them a first ever Munster senior title.
Athenry too are unlikely to allow their dreams to be tethered by the weight of general expectation. Breaking free from the shackles of the dominance of a Sarsfields team that had won four of the last six All-Irelands out west would have been seen as a spectacular success for Joe Rabbitte and his players at the start of the year, and the psychological hold that the four-time All-Ireland champions had on the rest of the clubs in Galway cannot be overstated. Athenry looked sharper than Sars for the majority of the county final but they still chipped over a solitary point in the last 20 minutes as nerves took hold.
Eimear Keane’s pair of goals earlier in the game proved to be enough however, and since then it’s been notable how pragmatic concerns about their lack of experience at this level have dissipated into the ether due to the sense of mission that has taken hold with regard to honouring the memory of Kate Moran; their playing colleague who passed away as a result of a head injury sustained in a league game in 2022.
It's a remarkable thing to say that an All-Ireland senior final could be about so much more than simply identifying the best club team in the country, and yet it rings true here.
As for the magic moment that will live on, Ciara Golden had one of those for the Barrs when she scored the winning point at the end of extra, extra time in a thrilling semi-final against Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim). Perhaps it might be the turn of an Athenry player to create a magic play that will outlive us all this weekend?
In the intermediate final, Ballincollig come into the decider, their current path a redemption arc. County senior finalists in 2013, they ran into the all-conquering Milford side from that era that would go on to win a second straight All-Ireland and finish with three in four seasons, and after sustaining a chastening defeat, they never got back to those heights.
The club eventually decided to regrade to intermediate after all bar a handful of those players stepped away but now those remaining stalwarts, bolstered by some very promising teenagers, will take on a Camross club looking to add another note of celebration to what has been a remarkable year for Laois camogie.
Not unlike St Finbarr’s and Athenry, Camross are a club where the men’s team have been incredibly successful. But as team captain Aoife Collier remarked, it has been half a century since a Camross team played in Croke Park and while the senior men lost out to Glen Rovers in that 1977 final, Collier and her colleagues are in the unusual position of having more Croke Park experience in their Rebel County opponents, so they will be hopeful of scoring a win back for Laois against Cork.
The Junior A and Junior B deciders will take place away from the blinding lights of Jones’ Road but there are plenty of reasons to keep an eye on these games too. Four Roads and Athleague have a history of reaching junior finals but St Dominic’s have worked hard to earn their place on the top of the tree in what is a very competitive Roscommon championship. Their unexpected landslide win over St Peter’s in the semi-final has raised expectations about what they can achieve.
Brídíní Óga have known success at this level but with a lot of player turnover behind them since their win over Knockananna in 2022, a second All-Ireland win would prove that when the right support is put in place, then success can regenerate in a club, even after key players move away.
St Kevin’s are breaking new ground just by taking to the field in Abbotstown, as no Louth club has ever reached an All-Ireland club camogie final at any level. Meanwhile, Éire Óg Carrickmore have had to watch as county rivals Naomh Treasa contested and won two deciders, which in turn will hand them both the confidence that they can win, but also the weight of expectation, while simultaneously conferring St Kevin’s with the freedom of the underdog.
Stories aplenty in a series of finals where all that remains to be seen are the incredible moments that will decide them.
