Deise Ladies ready for Roscommon Challenge in Under 16 All-Ireland Final

If you are a regular reader of what appears here, you will be only too well aware that great work has taken place in developing Ladies Football in Waterford over the past few years.

In the last few years, the county has won its share of honours, and what has been achieved to date could well be added to this week and again in the coming weeks and months.

The great Waterford team of the 90’s had the majority of its players come off very successful underage teams and many of the names on these teams are still fondly remembered by supporters of the game within the county at the time.

The present Waterford Intermediate Manager Pat Sullivan is at present doing as Michael Ryan did back in the 90’s putting together a team of experienced players as well as some of the most exciting young players in the county.

Players like Caoimhe McGrath, the Murray Sisters, Lauren McGregor, Megan Dunford, Shauna Dunphy, Mary Kate Morrissey, Ciara Hurley and Kate McGrath are all young players that have got game time with Waterford this year having come off good underage teams in the last few years and who no doubt look to add to what they have already got in their medal collection.

But these players as well as the more established players on the Waterford intermediate panel cannot rest on their laurels thinking that there place on the Waterford panel might be secure for a number of years to come, because coming behind them is another exciting young group of players.

Johnny Troy’s under 16 team on Wednesday evening of this weekend make the trip to North Tipperary for the All-Ireland ‘B’ Final where thy will play Roscommon and many of the players involved having seen what does that have played under 14, 16 and minor have done in the last few years will be pushing hard for a place on the Waterford panel going into the future.

Two years ago at under 14 level, Waterford won the All-Ireland ‘B’ Championship beating Westmeath in the final at Crettyard winning 4-10 to 0-11, the same day that Waterford beat Offaly in the All-Ireland Hurling Qualifiers in Tullamore.

However, while many that were involved in that win are likely to be again involved this time around which could give the side confidence heading to Nenagh as they have experience of big occasions, but they cannot and should not under estimate the challenge of their opponents.

Make no mistake; this Roscommon side that Waterford are playing are a good side.

The Connacht championship was played on a round robin basis.

The top two teams after five rounds of games would contest the Connacht ‘A’ Championship, with the third and fourth placed teams contesting the ‘B’ Championship with the looser of that game representing Connacht in the All-Ireland ‘C’ Championship.

Roscommon began their quest to reach Wednesday evening’s final by beating Sligo 1-14 to 1-5. This was followed by a massive loss (17-10 to 3-8) against Mayo, but from here on in it wins all the way for the Rossies, beating Leitrim in Round three (3-10 to 0-3) and then Galway 2-11 to 1-6. In the final round of games Roscommon had a bye.

After five rounds of games, Mayo, Galway and Roscommon had six points from a possible eight in their four games meaning that score difference was needed to decide who finished where in the table.

Mayo and Galway both had a better score difference to Roscommon so qualified for the ‘A’ final while Roscommon were pitted with Leitrim in the ‘B’ decider.

Roscommon won that game 3-10 to 1-4 and just to show how strong Roscommon are, Galway who Roscommon beat earlier in the competition went on to beat Mayo the only side to beat Roscommon so far this year on a 2-11 to 2-8 score line.

Right throughout the team Roscommon have some excellent players in the likes of Rebecca Cox, Sharon O’Dowd, Amy Curley, Róisín Wynne, Emer McNally, Mikaela McHugh, Heather Payne, Aoife Gavin, Niamh Shanagher, Niamh Brady and Sinead Farrell.

Waterford’s journey to this Wednesday evening’s All-Ireland final began back in March when they travelled to Martinstown to play Limerick.

Waterford won this game 6-5 to 1-8. The winning of the game was either side of the break as Hannah Power from Old Parish and Kate Cliffe hit goals and early in the second half Kaiesha Tobin and Abbie Dunphy hit another brace of goals.

Limerick came back into the game after this but in Rosie Landers they met a goalkeeper who was in fine form. The Ballyduff Upper player on more than one occasion in this game made brilliant saves to keep the home sides attack at bay.

Waterford made absolute sure of the victory late on in the game as Kaiesha Tobin and Abbie Dunphy hit their second goals of the game.

Next up for Waterford was a game against Clare at Emly in Tipperary.

This proved to be a very tight game which again resulted in a win for Waterford, this time on a 1-7 to 1-5 score line.

Katie Duggan Sullivan opened the scoring for Waterford but Clare would hit back with 1-1 to give them a three point lead.

Waterford however were soon back on level terms as Kaeisha Tobin landed two points and Abbie Dunphy hit one before Katie Duggan Sullivan hit a crucial goal for Waterford just before the break.

Abbie Dunphy and Kaiesha Tobin kept the score board ticking over in the second half as Clare tried hard to get back in front, but once Chloe Fennell pointed for Waterford victory was going to be Waterford’s.

Before Waterford got to play Tipperary in the Munster ‘B’ Final, they played Kerry in the ‘A’ semi final, where the stronger side from the Kingdom ran out 5-9 to 2-9 winners.

Kerry hit the first of their goals with only two minutes on the clock which made it very difficult for Waterford, but credit the side in White and Blue they never gave up.

Kerry added a second goal on 18 minutes. Scores from Abbie Dalton, Aisling Mullaney and Kaiesha Tobin saw Waterford turn around after played against the wind trailing 2-7 to 1-3.

Four points from Kaisha Tobin in the second half helped cut Kerry’s lead to three points, but disaster struck for Waterford as the side were getting back into contention with the concession of a third goal which was quickly followed by a fourth.

The impressive Kaiesha Tobin hit another 1-1 and Bronagh Condon hit a point for Waterford after this but a fifth goal shortly before the end killed off any chance Waterford had of advancing to the ‘A’ final and a meeting with Cork.

The Munster Final at Kilmacthomas was a thriller, with the sides sharing eight goals evenly.

Waterford turned around with a 3-5 to 1-2 advantage.

Playing with the wind in the opening thirty minutes Waterford hit a brace of goals though Abbie Dunphy and one from Chloe Fennell while Kaiesha Tobin put three points on the score board.

Tipperary came out for the second half a much different side and put 2-4 past Waterford with Waterford hitting a point in that time from Abbie Dunphy.

The visiting side took the lead for the first time on forty two minutes, but Abbie Dunphy hit another goal and Abbie Dalton, Chloe Fennell and Kaiesha hit points to put Waterford five in front.

Tipperary received a boost when Waterford were reduced to fourteen players and also hit a goal, but Waterford dug very deep in those closing minutes as Katie Duggan Sullivan, Kaiesha Tobin and Abbie Dalton all hit points to win for Waterford a place in the All-Ireland semi finals.

The semi final against Kildare was played just two weeks ago at Freshford in Kilkenny.

That game was a suburb game of football.

Kildare were first to score in Freshford but Waterford were soon into their stride as Katie Duggan Sullivan equalised after which Kaeisha Tobin rattled the Kildare net and Katie Duggan Sullivan followed up with three further points to give Waterford a 1-4 to 0-1 lead with just sixteen minutes played.

Not wanting to let Waterford go too far ahead Kildare hit back with four points to leave two between the sides but a point from Kaiesha Tobin before the break meant Waterford turned around leading 1-5 to 0-5.

The second half started in a similar fashion to the first but the rolls were reversed.

Abbie Dunphy opened the second half scoring to go four up but Kildare hit back with 1-1 to draw level five minutes into the second half.

Three minutes later Kildare were back in front, and with nine minutes to go it was still one between the sides as Kaiesha Tobin and Keeley Corbett-Barry landed scores which were cancelled out by efforts from the impressive Nanci Murphy.

Eight minutes from time Kaiesha Tobin levelled matters with a point from a free and with four minutes to go, the Dungarvan player Waterford in front with another point from another free.

It was the hungrier side that would now advance to the final. Kildare through everything at the Waterford defence but they could not get through. The Lilly-whites playing in a green shirt even hit the crossbar. At the other end Waterford with their chances made no mistakes and the forwards when the chances did come their way kept a cool nerve and it paid off as Kaiesha Tobin, Keely Corbett-Barry and Annie Fitzgerald hit unanswered points to seal a four point win and a place in this Wednesday’s final for Waterford.

Wednesday evening’s game in Nenagh which has a 7pm throw in could well prove to be an enthralling battle.

Both sides all year are in terrific form. Both sides go into the game having lost just one game, for Roscommon they have five wins from six games, for Waterford their record is four wins from five.

Heading into the game Waterford have every so slightly the better scoring average but when it comes to scores conceded Waterford have by far the better average.

This is a game that neither will win easily going from what we have seen all year. One mistake could well prove to be the difference between the two. Waterford’s big match day experience could well stand to them here, but you can never tell. One thing we can be assured of is that those that do make the journey to North Tipperary on Wednesday evening are assured of a great battle.