Gailltir and Eglish are sixty minutes from All-Ireland appearance.

Camogie in Waterford has received many boosts of the past few years and on Sunday afternoon next it could receive another massive boost if Gailltir were to advance to next month’s All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Club Final at Croke Park.

Should Gailltir come through against Tyrone side Eglish, there is nobody that deserves a date at G.A.A. Headquarters than the Barony Ladies.

For a number of years two clubs Lismore and Saint Anne’s have dominated the game of Camogie.

Prior to Gailltir winning a first senior county final since 2008, both Lismore and Saint Anne’s shared the County Senior Finals played in between and the two have shared the County Senior League titles played over the past number of years.

But it was no surprise to see Gailltir break the dominance of the two giants of the game in recent years within the Déise County.

A great deal of work was put in on the underage front in the Gailltir Club, and while underage success does not always guarantee success at adult level, it is a help.

The last number of years has seen the sky blues win three Feile Titles in successive years and they have managed to bring forward players that were on these teams to their senior team in the past year where they have played with some established players.

They are also lucky to have a number of Roll Models within the club. Trish Jackman is one of the fines players of the game within the country and those coming after her have an excellent roll model to follow and try and if they were to achieve half of what she has achieved then they can look back in later years as having a successful Camogie career.

They also have another Roll Model in Áine Lyng a member of their club. Áine showed so much promise when playing underage camogie and after a few years away from playing with Gailltir she is back playing once more and will surely be in demand with the county selectors for the year ahead.

And up to 2015 they had another high profile player in their club in Emma Hannon. She was part of the Waterford side that captured the League Title against Laois in Carlow in 2015, but she had left the area by the time the All-Ireland win was achieved.

Gailltir know that they have achieved so much in the past year, but they will also know that there is so much more that they can achieve.

When they travel up the M9 on Sunday morning and head for Ashbourne after reaching the outskirts of Dublin, they will know that they are just sixty minutes from doing something that no other club have achieved up to now, to win an All-Ireland Club Final for Waterford at Croke Park.

But they will know that before they get a chance to do this they face a tough battle against the Tyrone representatives.

It might be hard for some to believe that when Eglish take to the field on Sunday it will be only the third time that they have played a championship game in this competition.

Because they are the only senior club in Tyrone, they automatically were crowned champions, and so represented the county in the Ulster Intermediate Championship, in the same way Gailltir as Waterford Senior Champions represented the county in the Munster Intermediate Championship.

Their first championship game played in 2016 was an Ulster Senior semi-final against Leitrim Fontenoys from Down, a side that Lismore beat a few years back on route to winning an All-Ireland Final.

Having come through this game successfully they played Grangemore from Armagh in the Ulster final, another game that they came through in with flying colours.

Sunday’s journey may be new to Gailltir but for their opponents it is a familiar one.

Last year they played in the same stage of the competition, having won a fist Ulster Final at the tail end of 2015, but they lost out to the Galway champions that day.

They no doubt will feel that the experience of playing in a game of this standard twelve months ago will stand to them this time.

They have some very good players within their ranks.

Leona Gallagher is their goalkeeper while Julie Lagan is a key member of their defence. In the middle of the field Shauna and Aisling Jordan are key, while the likes of Niamh McNulty, Maebh McHugh, Leanne and Ciara Donnelly who has played inter county camogie for Armagh, Ciara McGeady, Laura Mason and Kelley Anne Fay are key players throughout the field.

Just as Gailltir have worked on the youth of the area, so two are Eglish. Last year alone they won Leagues and Championships at under 14, 16 and minor grades.

Gailltir will know that while they are putting in tremendous work with their underage teams and are now getting their rewards, they will not be resting on their laurels.

They will need no reminding that Lismore and Saint Anne’s will want to get back to dominating the game in the county in the year ahead and will also be weary of the challenge of Cappoquin and De La Salle who are playing in the senior grade for the first time in 2017 having played in the adult grades for the first time in 2015.

But for now, Gailltir will only worry about getting past Eglish in Sunday’s game at Ashbourne.

They will only be too well aware of the challenge posed by Eglish, bit they also know that in the likes of Ciara and Trish Jackman, Ciara Hogan, Sinead Cunningham, Sally O’Grady, Aileen Cummins, Shauna Fitzgerald, Annie Glavey, Roisin Flood, Kate Lynch and Áine Lyng they have the players to lead them to the next stage of the competition.