Waterford All Set For First Ever Senior Camogie Championship Game

History will be created in Walsh Park on Saturday evening when a team from the county will run onto a field anywhere in Ireland to take part in an All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship game for the first time.

2015 was a year to remember for Camogie in Waterford with Sean Fleming’s side winning both the National Division Two League Final against Laois at Dr Cullen Park and also won the All-Ireland Intermediate Final against Kildare at Croke Park.

The spadework for these successes did not happen over night. A great deal of work has taken place to develop camogie within the county in the last few years with some of the highlights including Waterford winning All-Ireland Under 14 blitz as well as Under 16 and minor All-Ireland finals, while Lismore won a first ever Club All-Ireland Final after going so close in previous years, while the likes of Saint Anne’s and Gailltir have also contributed at senior level pushing Lismore hard, while all clubs have played a massive part in developing players at underage level.

The past few months has seen changes in the Waterford set up. Some players that were part of the set up last year are not involved this year. Some new players have been added to the panel and some players who played in the past but who were not involved last year are back in the fold again for this year.

Off the field there has also been chances. Sean Fleming who managed the side last year stood down after last years All-Ireland Final and was replaced by Brother Philip Ryan who was in Sean Fleming’s management team last year but he stood down ahead of the league campaign on medical grounds and Sean Fleming came back in charge for the league campaign till a new full time manager was named.

After the league was completed it was confirmed that Don McMahon would be that new manager and has worked with the likes of Shane Ahearne, Joey Carton, Maurice Cahillane, Chris Dempsey and Nicky Mackey in the last few weeks preparing the team for this weekend.

Waterford could not have wished for tougher opponents in their Championship owner, as they face reigning All-Ireland senior Champions Cork.

And even after this weekends game Waterford will not have it much easier as they will face Wexford, Limerick, Offaly and Clare in the coming weeks.

Nobody in the Waterford set up will need telling that there is a big step up from the Intermediate to Senior Grades, but Waterford will take great heart from the fact that other teams that have moved up in recent years have more than held their own and will be hoping that they too can repeat this.

While Waterford won just one game in the league, that being their last game against Derry, they were competitive in their three other games, loosing by nine points to Kilkenny and Limerick in the first two rounds and then a twelve point loss away to this weekends opponents Cork in the third round of games.

Waterford will have learned a lot from these games and if they can learn and put what they learned in action during the championship then the side will have nothing to fear.

Just as there has been changes to the management team since last years All-Ireland final win, there is changes to the playing panel as well. Experienced players like Shona Curran, Nicola Morrissey and Vikki Falconer have opted out of the panel this year and their absence is going to be a loss. Last years goalkeeper Deirdre Brennan who played in some of the league games this year, is not named on the panel released recently.

While these are losses to the panel there is still a nice blend of youth and experience in the panel.

The goalkeeping position is a fight out between De La Salle’s Brianna O’Regan and Cappoquin’s Tracey Kiely. Many will be expecting the De La Salle player to get the nod to start.

In defence Fiona Morrissey, Mairead Power, Charlotte Raher, Claire Whyte would be expected to be amongst the six players to start against Cork this weekend, while the centre of the field pairing could well see Trish Jackman and Lorraine Bray could feature.

In attack it is almost certain that Beth Carton will start with the likes of Niamh Rockett, Aisling Power, Caithriona McGlone and possibly Jenny Simpson set to start.

Cork warmed up for this game by beating Limerick recently in the Munster Final. They will have some household names in their panel like Aisling Thompson, Aoife Murray, Gemma O’Connor, Orla Cotter, Rena Buckley and Briege Corkery in their set up. But with the Cork Ladies Footballers also in action this weekend it remains to be seen what part the latter two will play in this game.

When Waterford played Kildare last year in the All-Ireland Final at Croke Park the support on the day was tremendous. With no adult games taking place in the county this weekend because of Féile na nGael, those who regularly attend games each weekend and who want to get their fill of games this weekend could do worse than to head to Walsh Park for a 5-15pm Start on Saturday evening and become a sixteenth player for Waterford in a clash between last years Senior and Intermediate Camogie All-Ireland Finals.

Waterford Senior Camogie Panel:

Aisling Power	Cappoquin
Aoife Landers	An Rinn
Aoife Shanahan	Butlerstown
Becky Kavanagh	Saint Annes
Beth Carton	De La Salle
Brianna O’Regan	De La Salle
Caithriona McGlone	Lismore
Charlotte Raher	Saint Annes
Claire Murphy	Saint Annes
Claire Whyte	Saint Annes
Fiona Morrissey	An Rinn
Iona Heffernan	Ferrybank
Jenny McCarthy	Cappoquin
Jennie Simpson	Saint Annes
Kate McMahon	Butlerstown
Lorraine Bray	Cappoquin
Mairead Power	Piltown (Co. Kilkenny)
Niamh Ahearne	Ferrybank
Niamh Murphy	De La Salle
Niamh Rockett	Saint Annes
Saoirse Bonnar	Saint Annes
Shona Kiernan	Lismore
Shona Prendergast	Lismore
Sibeal Harney	Saint Annes
Tracey Kiely	Cappoquin
Trish Jackman	Gailltir

*apologies to anyone left out. Panel is as I have seen.