Déise Ladies Appeal for Support

With less than two weeks to go to this years Ladies Football All-Ireland Finals, Waterford’s Michelle Ryan has appealed to as much Waterford Support to get to Croke Park on October 7 and to shout on the girls in white and blue.

Waterford for the second time in three years are involved in the Intermediate final where they will take on what is a very fancied Armagh side.

The sides have clashed twice already this year. In the league section of the championship, the sides shared the spoils and in a play off to determine which of the two sides topped the group after both finished on seven points (three points for a win in Ladies Football), the Ulster side came out on top.

With Antrim and Louth set to meet in the Junior Final which is played before the Intermediate final, there is the fear that the combined support of both sides will stay on and get behind the girls from the Orchard County.

Although Cork and Kerry are playing in the senior game, there is the chance that much of their support will not be in for the opening stages of the Intermediate game to get behind the Déise girls, there is the chance that what support Waterford normally have at their games will be drowned out but the support from Ulster and the North East of the county.

The Déise captain is also hoping that there will not be any fixture clashes with their game.

When Cork contested the All-Ireland Senior Camogie final recently, the Cork County Board fixed their two senior hurling semi finals at the same time as the ladies were in action at Croke Park.

As a result of the actions of the Cork County Board, the support that the Camogie team received in Croke Park was down on what was expected.

Michelle Ryan has pointed out it would be ideal if the Waterford County Board did not schedule games in the county on the day of the All-Ireland Final.

A fixture clash ‘would not be ideal for us’ Michelle Ryan has said and ‘it would be great’ if the county board had left as many Waterford Supporters the opportunity to get to Croke Park especially ‘as they are the only Waterford team to get to play in Croke Park this year.’

With the game against Armagh having a 2pm throw in, the team is most likely to travel to the Capital the day before the game so that nothing has been left to chance.

They will be returning back home the evening of the match, win loose or draw.

It has become the custom that teams returning home from an All-Ireland final are afforded a reception by its fans. While no details of such an event or where the team will be returning back to have been made public, no doubt on the day news will spread fast, and it would be nice to see the team receive the welcome they deserve.

Most of the talk in Waterford is on what time and energy is put into preparing teams for action. All teams put in the same effort in so far as funds are available. The Ladies are no different, and maybe they effort put in by them is even greater, as the funding which has to be made available to senior inter county teams through an agreement with the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) is not available to the ladies and the cost to the players attending training and often to matches comes from their own pocket.

In an attempt to help raise some funds to offset the cost the All-Ireland to the Waterford Ladies Football Board, a fundraising day will take place this coming Saturday at the Al-Eile Stud Farm in Kilgobnet.

Michael Ryan has been a long standing supporter of Ladies Football in Waterford and has been sponsoring the team with a long number of years.

Entry to the farm is from Noon to 2pm and the fee to gain admittance is just €5 per car.

For this, those present will get

• A chance to meet and chat with Waterford Ladies Football Inter County Team
• A guided tour of the fantastic Al-Eile Stud, the opportunity to view the grounds of Michael Ryan's stud farm plus his famous equine gym where you'll get the chance to watch horses being exercised in the pool and adjacent arena.
• For the younger and young at heart members there will be a bouncy castle and slide!!
• Face painting , and
• Light refreshments for everyone