The Kilkenny camogie team hosted their homecoming after their dramatic All-Ireland final win on Sunday.
The Cats looked done and dusted against Cork in Sunday's final in Croke Park but a late goal guided Brian Dowling's side to All-Ireland glory.
And the team returned for their homecoming in front of thousands on Monday evening.
Kilkenny manager Brian Dowling reflected on an All-Ireland camogie title won the hardest way possible.
Retirements, injuries, withdrawals, rank bad luck and a couple of tragedies all affected the group at different stages this year but somehow they navigated all those obstacles.
“The off the field stuff was very tough,” said Dowling. “A lot of stuff happened in March and April, obviously our coach Tommy Shefflin’s brother, Paul, passed away. Then my own uncle passed away in a house fire.
“Aoife Prendergast’s granddad passed away. Ciara Phelan’s granddad passed away and everything just happened in a couple of weeks and then to have Kellyann Doyle’s and Aoife Doyle’s cruciate injuries on top of that.
“It just seemed that everything was going wrong. I don’t know, we just sort of galvanised ourselves, that team spirit within the group, you stay going and stay going.
“We said it on Friday night in the team meeting, ‘Look, the amount of things that were thrown at this group this year and here we are, still fighting, still in with a chance of winning an All-Ireland’. I’m just so proud of them that they were able to get through all of that and whatever went on.
“We had new girls stepping up, the likes of Tiffanie Fitzgerald who went up and scored the first point of the game, she’s a corner-back, 19 years of age. That’s just incredible. That sums up the whole thing I suppose.”
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