Kilkenny camogie star Miriam Walsh says tragedy and adversity helped bring the team closer together on their way to All-Ireland success this past summer.

Walsh starred at full-forward in the Cats’ run to the O’Duffy Cup decider where they defeated Cork by a point in August to claim their 15th All-Ireland senior championship success.

However, speaking on RTÉ 2fm's Game On, Walsh said that there had been some devastating events over the past year along the way to victory.

"Two of our main players, Kellyannn and Aoife Doyle, two sisters, done their cruciates," she said.

"Then [coach] Tommy Shefflin lost his brother Paul. Brian [Dowling, the manager] lost his uncle. Some of the girls lost their grandparents. It kind of put sport into perspective and it drove us on for the whole year. We became a tightknit group from there on.

"Brian is a fantastic man, a brilliant influence on us all. He's an unbelievable leader and he inspires us in so many ways.

"They were really life-changing [incidents]. When Tommy buried his brother Paul on the Tuesday morning, he was at our training Tuesday night. We were kind of his family; we were there for him. We really were there for one another."

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