Dublin surprise Kilkenny with second-half gear change

Dublin found another gear in the final quarter to pull clear of Kilkenny and qualify for the semi-finals of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship for the first time in seven years and only the second time since 1990.

There was no doubting the merit of the Dubs' triumph as they created far more via clever movement, lightning speed, support play and ferocious work rate.

While Kilkenny had a 15-minute period of ascendancy in the first half, they could not get the likes of captain Aoife Prendergast or Aoife Doyle involved sufficiently enough, whereas Dublin had massive contributions from all their key players although in the end, it was a consummate team effort that prevailed.

The game got off to an action-packed start as Prendergast split the posts in the second minute on the turn from 40 metres.

Dublin skipper Aisling Maher, an All-Star full-forward who was immense playing in the defensive pocket as she has been all season, equalised from a free for the first of her seven points.

Prendergast slotted her second point from play, but the Metropolitans struck for their first goal in the sixth minute.

It was a wonderful piece of opportunism and skill by former Dublin footballer Sinéad Wylde. A free from distance by Maher, who became co-chair of the GPA during the week, broke on the edge of the parallelogram but as Niamh Deely went to pick up the sliotar, Wylde somehow flicked it one handed off her hurley from behind and beyond Aoife Norris on the Kilkenny line.

The Cuala ace was playing with a broken bone in her hand but you would never have known it and she was a constant thorn in the side of the Noresiders, with Aoife McKearney, Kerrie Finnegan and Emma Byrne just three others who outstanding for the victors.

Doyle