No joy for Waterford ladies in All-Ireland semi final, but progress is made.

For the second year running, Waterford bowed out of the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship on Saturday last at the semi final stages of the competition, going under to Galway for the second successive year.

When the thirty plus players in the panel in the coming days and weeks sit down in their own time and think back over the year they had, they can do so with some pride.

Great strides have been made with Camogie over the past number of years, and the indications are that with Waterford moving in the right direction in underage circles, the future is indeed bright for Waterford.

In the last five years, three All-Ireland Junior Finals were reached, after winning the title in 2011 Waterford have reached the last two Intermediate semi finals, but surely it is only a matter of time before Waterford take that extra step and return to Croke Park on All-Ireland Final day and when they do, you really have to fancy the side to move up to the next grade of competition.

It’s fair to say that when it comes to the G.A.A. in Waterford and at a national level in general, our ladies do not get the recognition that they deserve. However, slowly this is starting to change. The Sunday game have given coverage to the Ladies Football and Camogie Senior Championships in the past few weeks which is a welcome move, and thanks in no small part to a small band of freelance journalists, a round up of games can be read in the some of the National papers on a Sunday.

The commitment by our ladies can be compared to our men’s sides. They put on the same training. They make the same sacrifices. It could be even argued that the commitment and sacrifices are even greater than what the men put in, as in Ladies Football and Camogie, there is no GPA to support them, and players often have to pay out of their own pocket to get to training and games, and when meals are arranged afterwards, it is often very basic.

During the past year, the Waterford intermediate Camogie team played thirteen games between the National League, the Munster Championship and the All-Ireland Championship.

The panel of around thirty players is made up from players coming from players all over the county.

It’s not true, but let’s say it is, that all the players come from the centre of the county, take Lemybrien as a base. If the players were to travel together to and from the thirteen games, they would have clocked up in the region of 3,200km this year. For some, the figure will be slightly higher, for some slightly lower, but it is an average figure. Add in what players would have clocked up in their cars to attend training sessions at venues like De La Salle, Lismore and the Gold Coast this year, all at their own expense or shared expense if two or more players were to travel together, and you really have to admire their commitment.

In the league this year, Waterford reached the Semi finals of the league this year where they were beaten by Kildare which was progress on past years, they reached the Munster Intermediate Final where they easily beat Tipperary and in the championship the semi finals were reached.

Galway at The Ragg got off to a dream start. Inside five minutes of the game starting they were five points up. Aoife Callanan opened the scoring for the Tribes-ladies which was quickly followed by a point from Aoife Donoghue.

Galway’s dream start quickly got better when Orlaith McGrath cracked a goal to the Waterford net in the fifth minute.

In fact, things could have been a lot worse for Waterford at this stage of the game. Aisling O’Brien in the first attack of the game did brilliant to keep Aoife O’Donoghue from bellowing the Waterford net and shortly afterwards the same player was foiled by Trish Jackman.

It was clear to see in the opening minutes that Waterford were in trouble at the back and the Waterford management team wasted no time in reshuffling their defence and the moves worked.

While Galway were next to score through Finola Keely, Waterford for the remainder of the first half proved to be the better of the two sides.

Nicola Morrissey pulled a point back for Waterford on seventeen minutes.  Aoife Donoghue hit her second of the game soon afterwards. Zoe O’Donoghue hit a point for Waterford to leave the Déise ladies trailing 1-4 to 0-2, but she was unlucky the effort from the Saint Anne’s player could with some lady luck on her side have gone under the crossbar.

Trish Jackman and Rebecca Hennelly swapped scores for the two sides to keep five between the sides, but the Saint Anne’s duo of Zoe O’Donoghue from play and Karen Kelly with a free and a forty-five raised white flags to leave just two between the sides.

However, in the time that was left, Galway were the only side to score as Rebecca Hennelly from a very harshly awarded free pointed to give Galway a 1-6 to 0-6 lead at the change of ends.

Galway in the second half proved to be the better of the two sides. Finola Keely and Rebecca Hennelly added early scores which stretched the Tribe’s ladies lead to five.

Waterford pulled a point back through Zoe O’Donoghue but Galway were to hit the next four scores through Orlaith McGrath, Deirdre Burke, Rebecca Hennelly and Orlaith Burke again to give them a 1-12 to 0-7 lead with forty five minutes on the clock.

Two minutes later, Waterford won a free forty-five metres from goal. Karen Kelly sent in a testing ball around the Galway goal which a number of Galway players unsuccessfully tried to clear and somehow, the ball managed to find its way to the Galway net to leave five points between the sides.

Waterford were unable to add to the goal, and the eventual winners were able to land a hat-trick of points all from Rebecca Hennelly which helped them to a 1-15 to 1-7 win.

Galway are through to the All-Ireland for the second year running where they will play a very good Limerick side.

As pointed out, some good progress is being made when it comes to Camogie in Waterford in recent years. I for one, have no doubt that the raw material is there to achieve even greater achievements. Waterford I believe are doing about things right. Steady progress is made each year and the players some of whom are very young are picking up some great experience which will stand to them.

There can be no doubting, the panel will have been disappointed after last Saturday’s defeat to Galway, but they know they are moving in the right direction, and all those involved in the game within the county know that some great prospects can be added to the panel over the next year or two.

Some more progress can be made this weekend when the counties under 16 team travel to Mallow to play Cork in the All-Ireland ‘B’ Final. The sides have met a number of times this year. There had been one win for Waterford, one defeat for Waterford and on one occasion, Waterford had to settle for a share of the spoils.

This weekend, these results will have to be forgotten about. A quick glance at the scoreboard before the game will show that it read’s 0-0 to 0-0 before the throw in. What it will be after the game right now is anyone’s guess. Let’s hope that it will be in Waterford’s favour, which might make up for some of the disappointment of last weekend.

Galway: Roisin Callanan; Tara Kenny, Shauna Healy, Colette Gill; Paula Kenny, Sarah Noone, Sinead Keane; Aoife Callanan, Caitriona Cornmican: Katie O’Dwyer, Rebecca Hennelly, Maria Cooney; Finola Keely, Orlaith McGrath, Aoife Donoghue. Subs: Deirdre Burke for Moira Cooney, Moira Connaughton for Sarah Noone, L Mitchell for Finola Keely, Megan Moran for Caitriona Cornmican.  

Scorers: Rebecca Hennelly 0-7 (4 frees, 1 ’45), Orlaith McGrath 1-2, Finola Keely, Aoife Donoghue 0-2 each, Deirdre Burke, Aoife Callanan 0-1 each.

Waterford: Aisling O’Brien; Emma Hannon, Fiona Morrissey, Vicki Falconer; Marie Russell, Charlotte Raher, Jenny McCarthy; Trish Jackman, Mairead Murphy; Jennie Simpson, Nicola Morrissey, Shona Curran; Karen Kelly, Zoe O’Donoghue, Ruth Geoghegan. Subs: Claire Murphy for Ruth Geoghegan, Lorraine Bray for Emma Hannon.

Scorers: Karen Kelly 1-2 (1-1 frees, 0-1 ’45), Zoe O’Donoghue 0-3. Nicola Morrissey, Trish Jackman (free) 0-1 each.

Referee: Ger O’Dowd (Limerick).