McNamara and Galway eyeing Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor A camogie success

By Paul Keane

Fintan McNamara was blown away by the quality of the Galway players when he first encountered them as U-16s.

That was back in 2024 when the Clare man, a respected camogie referee, was part of a team of matchday officials for an U-16 championship game involving Galway.

Discipline wasn't a problem that day but McNamara did take plenty of notes about just how good a group Galway had assembled.

And when the opportunity arose to manage the same squad for 2026, he jumped at the chance.

They're minor players now, of course, and are through to Sunday's Electric Ireland Minor A championship final against Kilkenny.

"I'm an inter-county referee as well so I got to see this group of girls two years ago," said McNamara. "I saw how good they were at that stage and then the job opportunity came up with them and Galway gave it to me.

"I saw the talent then firsthand when we had trials and I could see it clearly once we narrowed it down again just how good of a squad we had put together."

Muireann Conroy and Emma Barrett are Galway's joint captains and there is more star talent in Sinéad Feeney and Clodagh Burke.

Feeney and Burke helped propel Athenry to All-Ireland senior club success at the start of the year - with Burke named Player of the Match in their final replay win.

Amy Kenny and Leah Forde grabbed the Galway goals in the county's gutsy 2-18 to 3-11 Minor A semi-final win over Tipperary, and Mary Brigid Cosgrove was also prominent again.

But they'll meet a similarly gifted Kilkenny group who won the 2025 title and have returned with many of the same players.

A number of Kilkenny players also captured the Post Primary Schools Senior A title with Loreto in February.

Loreto's Ona Kennedy was named Electric Ireland Minor Star Camogie Player of the Year for 2025 and the Windgap phenom top scored in Kilkenny's recent semi-final win over Cork.

Kilkenny also beat Galway by a point, 1-8 to 1-7, when the sides met in the round robin in Dunmore back in mid-March.

"That was an extremely tight game, it was physical, a very good game," said McNamara, who recalled being pelted with rain and hailstones. "Kilkenny have a good bit of experience there, quite a few who were there last year and who won it and are back again."

Kilkenny, crucially, also have home advantage at UPMC Nowlan Park this weekend.

"I think it's great for the minor camogie to have it in a big stadium, I totally agree with that," said McNamara. "In terms of ourselves, it's probably not ideal to have an All-Ireland final down in their backyard. But look, for us, it's just a game, just a pitch and we'll just concentrate on ourselves."

McNamara is certain that many of his Galway players will go on to light it up as county seniors, regardless of what happens in Sunday's final.

"There's 11 of them that are underage again next year," he said. "One thing we're really proud of is that we have used 34 players throughout the Championship. So from our panel of 35, we've used 34. One girl was injured and is just coming back, so we have used everyone.

"I see so much potential in this group of girls and some of them will definitely become household names up at senior once they keep going."