Waterford are Munster Camogie Champions

Camogie in Waterford received a major boost over the past weekend, when the counties Intermediate team beat their counterparts from Tipperary at Cahir in this year’s Munster Final.

Over the past few years, great strides have been made with Camogie in the Déise County.

Three All-Ireland Junior finals in a row were reached between 2009 and 2011, when Waterford beat Down having lost the previous two against Offaly and Antrim.

Last year in their first year playing in the Intermediate grade, Waterford reached the All Ireland semi final which they lost to Galway who in turn when on to play and loose to an excellent Derry side in the All-Ireland Final after a replay.

Already this year Waterford reached the Division two league semi final which they lost to Kildare on a terrible day some weeks back and in the run up to last weekends Munster Final, Waterford qualified for this years All-Ireland semi final which is fixed for late August at a venue yet to be confirmed.

These successes coupled with a good run by the Counties underage sides, and Galltir’s recent success at Féile suggests that Waterford have a promising future in the game in the years ahead.

Waterford reached this year’s Munster Final having recorded an excellent win over Cork at Pairc Eamon de Paor in Tallow.

While Waterford went into the game as the favourites against Tipperary’s second string team, few if any could have predicted that Waterford would win in the manner they did as Camogie in the Premier County is pretty strong.

Waterford throughout the hour caused all sorts of problems for the Tipperary backs while at the opposite end of the field the Waterford defensive unit were very hard to break down.

Saint Anne’s club member Zoe O’Donoghue finished the game as the top scorer for Mark Cooney’s charges. Her club mate Karen Kelly also featured strongly on the scoring stakes finishing the game with seven points, four of which came from frees and one from a forty-five, while Lismore’s Nicola Morrissey who finished the game with four points behind her name was judged to be the Player of the Match.  

Both sides took time to settle. Both defences were on top in the early exchanges as neither wanted to give anything away too easily.

The first score of the game did not arrive till the sixth minute when Karen Kelly put over a free, but from here on the scores came at regular intervals.

Maria Ryan levelled matters for Tipperary before the influential Karen Kelly pointed twice, one from play the other from a free for a foul on Lorraine Bray, to give Waterford a 0-3 to 0-1 lead but this lead was cut to one when Ciara McGrath pointed for Tipperary.

Waterford enjoyed a period of dominance over the next number of minutes. Karen Kelly put over two more frees and once from play to stretch Waterford’s lead and team captain Jennie Simpson also got in on the act before Zoe O’Donoghue got her first score of the evening after she was picked out by Nicola Morrissey.

Leading 0-8 to 0-2, Tipperary pulled a point back through Aoife Ryan, but it was the side in the white and blue shirts that finished the half the stronger of the two as they were for much of the opening thirty minutes as Zoe O’Donoghue hit a goal and then a point to give Waterford a 1-9 to 0-3 lead at the break.

Waterford came out for the second all guns blazing and was somewhat unlucky not to have hit an early second goal but Karen Kelly saw her shot saved by Orla McEniry in the Tipperary goal and the ball was put out for a forty-five.

Tipperary hit back with an early second half goal through Ciannait Walsh, but the Premier Women found it hard to get on top of the Déise ladies who continued to control the game in all sections of the field in the second half and with Zoe O’Donoghue, Valerie O’Brien, Trish Jackman, Nicola Morrissey and Karen Kelly all landing second half scores for Waterford, they were able to run out comfortable 2-18 to 1-8 winners.

Next up for Waterford is their All-Ireland semi final against Galway. No venue or time is fixed for this game yet. Waterford will go into this game in a confident mood.

While team manager Mark Cooney and his selectors Des O’Meara, Rachel Ahearne and Niall Devereux will continue to work hard over the next month of so, and may fit in a number of challenge games to keep the side ticking over, they may have liked the time difference between the Munster Final and the All-Ireland semi final to be that little bit closer, as regardless of the amount of challenge and in house games you play at times, its hard to beat a championship game to keep a side on their toes for their next challenge.