Evergreen Katrina Mackey retains hunger as battle against Kilkenny's Cats looms

A search of Katrina Mackey photos neatly captures what the Douglas dynamo is all about.

A big-game player with a host of goals and class points on the grandest platforms, including her nine Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie finals, the images confirm what the mind's eye recalls about a player in her 15th season at the highest level.

There she is having gathered possession, hunched over to protect the sliotar as a defender closes in, about to slip the tackle and embark on another lightning run. Other shots show her mid-slalom, about to glide past defenders trying to stand her up.

Then she is stretching her legs in open territory, sliotar on bas, prompting fear and mayhem in opposition defences, numbers converging, attempting to close her down.

This was how Mackey introduced herself in 2009, when she and her twin sister Pamela were called into the Cork panel after Douglas had won the county championship the previous season.

And it is what she is still doing, as evidenced in her glorious equaliser in last year’s All-Ireland final against Kilkenny. Unfortunately for the Rebels, Denise Gaule had the final say with a dramatic winner, a little bit of payback for those extra time Julia White and Orla Cotter points in 2017 and 2018.

Mackey did end the campaign with her sixth All-Star (Pamela has four) and along with five All-Irelands, she is one of the most decorated players still playing. She missed this year’s League after suffering a bruised lung and bruised ribs in the first half of the first game against Dublin (she had already raised a green flag) but clipped over four points from play on her comeback in the Championship opener against Galway.

That she remains one of the most dangerous forwards in the game, having turned 31