Waterford Camogie - Building for the future

 

 In recent years, great strides have been made in Waterford with the game of Camogie.

After a number of near misses, the Junior All-Ireland Championship was captured in 2011 and twelve months on, minus several members of the All-Ireland winning team, Waterford narrowly were defeated in the All-Ireland Intermediate Semi Final against a Galway team who went on to draw with a Derry side that many regarded as raging hot favourites to lift the title.

Titles have been won in the lower tiers of the National League. And success has also been achieved at underage levels.

Waterford are now competing with some of the best in the game now and this year narrowly missed out on a place in the league final.

Waterford’s most high profile player is Gaultier’s Trish Jackman. She has won the last four All-Ireland Puc Fada competitions, and her successes have encouraged young girls who hear and read about what she has achieved into the games.

New clubs have sprung up around the county, and there is still plenty of areas where clubs could well be formed in the near future.

While some counties when they start to reach the heights that they have set for themselves or as soon as they begin to move in the right direction, they feel that a lot of the hard work is done and they neglect to think about the future.

Not so the Waterford Camogie County Board however.

On Saturday last, they brought the potential next group of stars to Dublin to take part in the inaugural Under 14 tournament blitz. Taking part in Division two, Waterford were based at the Faughs G.A.A. Club in the Templeogue area of the capital.

Drawn in a group along with Antrim, Clare, Dublin and Galway, Waterford’s first game was against Clare.

It was the perfect start for the Waterford girls in this game. Leading 2-4 to no score at the break, Waterford continued to dominate in the second half, running out 3-6 to no score winners.

Waterford followed this win up with another, this time over the Metropolitans. The host county had the better of the early exchanges, and looked to be on their way to a half time lead, but a Waterford goal just before the break meant that the Déise girls went in holding a slender advantage.

Dublin were to add a second goal in the third quarter of the game which gave them the lead, but in the last quarter, Waterford hit a purple patch, crashing a goal to the Dublin net and followed up with two points which helped preserve their winning start to the competition, running out 2-3 to 2-0 winners.

Galway provided the opposition for Waterford in the third game. Waterford in this game again proved to be the better team and ran out worthy winners on a 2-7 to no score scoreline.

In a must win game for Waterford took on Antrim in the last game in the group section. Waterford just shaded the opening half and lead 0-3 to 0-1 at the break. In the second half, Waterford continued to dominate and in the end ran out worthy winners on a 1-5 to 0-3 scoreline which set up a final against Derry.

Hurling and Camogie has always been strong in the most Northern Province, even if the titles that sides from there deserved have not come their way.

Derry in this game showed exactly how strong the game is in the North and just like Waterford, they showed that they are not resting on their laurels and are trying to produce quality players to add to the calibre of player that they currently have at adult level.

Waterford started this game brightly, hitting two early points to send them into an early lead, but the Oak Leaf girls responded with two of their own to tie up matters. They were however to go into the break leading after they hit a late goal which gave them a 1-2 to 0-2 advantage.

Two points in the early exchanges in the second half further stretched Derry’s lead, and despite throwing everything at the Derry defence, the Northerner’s were able to hold out for a 1-4 to 0-2 victory.

If Waterford can keep this group of players together and at the same time able to form similar groups then, its fair to say that the future is defiantly Rosie for Waterford Camogie.

Waterford Panel that travelled to Dublin: Clodagh Glavin, Saoirse Bonner, Beth Carton, Bronagh Condon, Anne Corcoran, Ellen Curran, Chloe Dempsey, Caoimhe Drohan, Megan Dunford, Saoirse English, Sibeal Harney, Courtney Healy, Rachel McDonald, Kate McGrath, Kate McMahon, Emer Montayne, Niamh Murphy, Laura Murray, Chloe Nolan, Katie Norris, Sinead O Brien, Brianna O Regan, Aisling Power, Emma Power, Emily Prendergast, Aoife Shanahan, Emily Wadding, Sharon Williams.
Something tells me, this is a team we will hear a lot more about.