Waterford Intermediate Ladies Football and Camogie sides take first steps to possible Croke Park September appearance this weekend.

Waterford’s men’s football and hurling teams will in the coming weeks use their get out of free card in a bid to play in Croke Park this September.

This weekend the counties Ladies Football and Camogie teams begin their bid to play at the same venue in September.

The footballers are out on Friday evening in the first of their round robin games in the Munster Intermediate Championship and less than twenty four hours later, it will be the turn of the counties Intermediate Camogie Team in the first round of the league stages of the All-Ireland qualifiers.

Waterford will this year be hoping to win their six Munster Ladies Football final in a row and will be looking to get that bid off to a good start on Friday evening when they play Limerick at Adare, the game having an 8pm throw-in.

Waterford will go into this game as the favourites to collect the points on offer, but they will be taking nothing for granted. Waterford will known that when Limerick visited Fraher Field in last years championship, that while Waterford won the game, for long parts of that game the visitors put it up to Waterford.

Waterford have not have a competitive game now for a number of weeks. There last game was the division three league final, a game won by Armagh in Parnell Park in Waterford.

Armagh went into that game the warmest of favourites, and while they won the game by nine points in the end, on another day victory could just have easily gone to Waterford.

Waterford has a nice blend of youth and experience this year and will have learned a lot from going so near in the league. Some of the young players that have played on successful underage teams over the past few years such as Liz Devine, Lauren McGregor, Shauna Dunphy etc. were given plenty of play time in the league and impressed, and if they were to win a place in the team from the off against Limerick ahead of more experienced players it would hardly be a shock.

Limerick in the league played in the fourth division and reached the semi finals where they were beaten by Antrim who went on to loose the final to Roscommon.

They have Marie Curtain back in the team. With the past few years she has concentrated a lot on her soccer skills and has played for Cork Women in the league of Ireland before signing for a team in Norway. However, she resumed playing ladies football this year and has greatly strengthened Limerick and was named as the player of the year in the fourth division of the league.

Limerick will come into the game confident. Things may not have gone well last year but they will take a lot of positives from their performances in the league. They will feel they have developed as a side during the league and while like many other teams have their plans since the league finished hampered somewhat with younger players sitting exams etc. they are in fact no different to any other side.

Limerick will be heading into this Friday’s game believing that there is a great spirit amongst the players and they will be hoping that this will stand to them and that they may be able to pull off a shock result against either Waterford or Tipperary who both would be seen to have stronger panels that what Limerick have.

Limerick will know that they put it up to Waterford twelve months ago in Fraher Field and playing on home soil, they will feel that if they show the same determination as they showed twelve months ago that they can pull off a win.

Waterford will be the favourites to win here, and most will not be in a position to see Pat O’Brien’s charges loose. Over the past number of years, they have amassed some considerable experience, appearing in the 2010 and 2012 All-Ireland’s and have won all Munster finals at this grade since 2009, and in this time have also produced some good underage players with some of these players now breaking through.

Waterford should be able to call upon the likes of Aimee Jordan, Nora Dunphy, Grainne Enright, Karen and Michelle McGrath, Michelle Ryan, Elaine Power, Margaret Revins, as well as the youth (I’m not saying the players mentioned are old) of Hannah Landers, Liz Devine, Shona Curran, Lauren McGregor etc. should stand to them in this game meaning that they could have one foot over the line in a bid to win that sixth Munster Intermediate Final in a row in mid July.

For the counties Intermediate camogie team there can be no doubting that history in a way can repeat itself.

In 2009 and 2010 the Waterford Junior Camogie team were beaten in All-Ireland Finals against Offaly and Antrim before winning the title at the third time of asking in 2011 when they beat Down at Croke Park. And for three years before this, Waterford’s involvement in the championship ended at the penultimate round of games.

Since winning the Junior Final, the team has played in the Intermediate Championship and in the last two years they have reached the All-Ireland semi final stages of the championship before bowing out on both occasions to Galway.

The side will be hoping that it will be third time lucky again this year should they reach the penultimate round of games and should they come through such a game in a final played on a pitch the size of Croke Park anything is possible.

Camogie in recent years have received a number of confidence boosters, and the side will begin this year’s championship in a confident mood.

In the last twelve months, Gaultier won the Division two final of Feile na nGael, something they will look to retain this weekend. This side as in the case of this year’s panel contains some good up and coming players and it is only a matter of time before some of them start to break into the adult teams at club and county level.

The Waterford Intermediate team last year beat Tipperary in the Intermediate Munster Final, the under 16 team beat Cork in the ‘B’ Munster Final against Cork but lost the All-Ireland to the same opposition later in the year. However in getting to the final shows the game is heading in the right direction.

This year Waterford retained the Munster final when they again beat Cork in Cashel at the end of March with nine points to spare.

With the past two years the Waterford under 14 team have returned home from the All-Ireland Blitz competition as winners, again proof if needed that the work being put in with the players is paying off.

Lismore last year and into the start of this year won the county Senior League and Championships and followed it up with wins in the Munster Intermediate Final and All-Ireland Final replay.

Success has also come for the counties Minor team this year when they won the All-Ireland Final beating Derry in the decider, but they lost in the Munster Championship a week later to a strong Clare outfit. A number of the players involved in these games were also involved with the Presentation College Waterford team that reached the All-Ireland final earlier this year, but were beaten by Mercy College from Roscommon.

This year’s Intermediate team is managed by former Ballygunner hurler Niall O’Donnell who took over from Mark Cooney after he accepted a roll in Derek McGrath’s Waterford management team.

The league may have be seen to be a little disappointing by some, but for much of the campaign the management team were without the Lismore players who were involved in the club championship right up to the day the first game of the league was played.

However, this did allow Niall O’Donnell the chance to look at some new players and give them the chance to show what they can do. How many of these players will now retain their position in the team that the Lismore players are now back in contention for a place remains to be seen. But they will know that if they are kept in reserve that having played in the league will only stand to them in the long term, even if results did not always go the way they would have liked.

Some weeks back Waterford played Tipperary’s team in the Munster Championship and ran the Premier Ladies to two points at The Ragg. This is something that will stand to the team as will the fact that they played a number of senior sides in challenge games recently.

Meath will provide the opposition for Waterford this weekend.

The sides have met already this year when Meath came out on top in the league game at Walsh Park on a 3-8 to 0-10.

The Royal’s are a side that Waterford will be taking very seriously and they will know that they will have to get something from the game.

In Emily Mangan, Claire Coffey, Emma Coffey, Jane Dolan, Aoife Maguire, Edel Guy, Cheyanne O’Brien as well as Sinead and Katie Hackett Meath will be a force to be reckoned with.

However, Niall O’Donnell and his selectors could well put out a very strong team with some very familiar places such as Trish Jackman, Jennie Simpson, Zoe O’Donoghue, Karen Kelly, Aisling O’Brien, Grainne Kenneally, Shona Curran, Marie Russell, Nicola Morrissey, Ruth Geoghegan etc. in the line out.

Meath go into this game having drawn with Kildare in the Leinster Intermediate final recently but lost the replay.

Waterford will know how strong the Royal Ladies will be, having lost the league game between the two but will also know that that day Waterford were short a number of regulars. To win in Rathmoylon will not be easy, but a win is very possible here for Waterford.