"They'd Run Through A Wall For You": David Maher On Kilkenny's Defiant Run To All-Ireland Glory

Earlier this summer, the Kilkenny Minor Camogie Team once again ascended to the pinnacle of Irish sport, claiming All-Ireland glory in the most resounding fashion in front of a home crowd at Nowlan Park.

Banishing the ghosts of their past, their 3-8 to 0-8 win over rivals Cork saw them lift the Síghle Nic an Ultaigh Cup for the first time since 2021, not only ending a three-year famine in the Camogie-mad county but also earning a rare-opportunity to celebrate All-Ireland glory in their home stadium.

With the dust all settled and the celebrations firmly in the rear-view mirror, we caught up with winning manager David Maher, who spoke about the honour of returning the Kilkenny minors to the top in Nowlan Park.

"I think maybe with three or four minutes left, um we were maybe eight or nine points up in a low scoring game. It began to kind of kick in then, you know, God, we actually we're going to do this here and we managed to get in. It's great. You can bring in eight subs in underage and we managed to bring in all eight because as as I said the effort that they put in for the six months is through the roof.

"Unless you're involved, you don't actually realize what these young athletes are doing. Um so that was brilliant to be able to get the eight subs in again just to to say because I would believe that a lot of them will play senior with Kilkenny, but the reality is some of them may not get the opportunity to wear Kilkenny jersey again. To be able to be part of it but to get on the pitch then as well, again memories for a lifetime and you know, when you saw the scenes at full time it was just fantastic to be able to do it in Kilkenny City in Nolan Park".

For young athletes however, All-Ireland glory is no small task, not least with the pressure of a home crowd weighing heavily atop your shoulders, and a successful Cork team en route across the country. A factor Maher believed always held a subtle position in the back of his side's heads.

There was over three or four thousand in Nowlan Park that day and you really felt that from from the stand. But again you have to give so much credit to the girls at that age to be able to to cope with the with the crowd. I'm sure it was always something at the back of their mind, you know, it's one thing not getting to the final in Nolan Park, but now that we've gotten this far, you know, to let a Cork team come up here and beat us in our own backyard.

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While a Nowlan Park victory may have been where the journey ended, it was far from guaranteed at the start of the campaign, when Maher's Kilkenny won just one of the three group games, beating Dublin, drawing with defending champions Tipperary and ultimately falling short against the Rebels.

Despite the chequered start, Maher felt that the disappointment of losing to Cork was the single biggest turning point in the campaign, moving his side from cruise control into fifth gear for the knockout stages.

So we would have been very disappointed with the result and our performance and I would have said a lot of the time that would have been a little bit of a turning point because um that made that we that result obviously we we qualified for the quarter final but even though it was a disappointing game that day against Cork here in Kilkenny. Um we all kind of felt more than ever, we could actually do something here in this competition because we we really weren't really operating in third gear and you know what they're capable of and definitely in the group stage we weren't motoring at full strength at all and thank we knew there was more gears.

Like looking back now, had the group stage gone smoothly and we got say three wins in three performances, we could be caught off guard then, you know, in a semi-final or complacency might set in. But we we probably were going into knockout stages with a bit of a point to prove still. So we we didn't want it to end on a bad note going up to Galway in the quarter final and yeah, so we would have been massively motivated for that and we we put 6 - 16 on the scoreboard that day. So that was there's probably two halves of the season I suppose the group stage and then, you know, the knockout phases where we really felt we upped it a couple of gears.

It was a change that in Maher's eyes was the fruit from a gruelling pre-season and immense buy-in, as well as a profound resilience that saw them overcome the disappointment of their season start into one laden with silverware.

"You go through that team, like they're young girls. That that's the like they're these girls are 16, 17 and 18 years of age but they're they're so determined and the day of the all Ireland final in Nowlan Park at the end of April against Cork, there was very little actually required for me to say to them because they're they just had a fire in their bellies. I remember we met in Nowlan Park the night before the all Ireland and we just got got into the stadium for a few pucks and there was just a savage determination in them and you just knew. They're great hurlers and they're so physically fit and whatnot, but they're great old characters, you know, and I don't want to be singling out any of them but you know, there's leadership right throughout the team," said Maher.

"The buying from the girls this year was was tremendous. Um they'd run through literally for a wall for you, you know. Um but I suppose then once we got over the quarter final uh against Galway, that was as I mentioned earlier, that was a big turning point for for the group. Um because you know, whilst I would have always felt we were only operating in third gear in the group stage, that can often be the case and you don't get to the fifth or sixth gear. Um luckily enough we did."

While for some of Maher's young stars like Electric Ireland Minor Camogie Player of the Year Ona Kennedy, another year at minor lies in wait, for others the transition to adult camogie now begins - an arena where David Maher thinks many of the 2025 team can go on to represent their county, using this year's success as a launchpad.