Waterford and Clare meet in League Opener

Waterford Senior Ladies Football Team make the journey to Cusack Park in Ennis on Sunday to play Clare in the first round of this year’s Division Two National Ladies Football League.

Waterford move up a division this year having won the division three title beating Tipperary after a replay at Semple Stadium, having lost the two previous finals against Armagh in 2014 and Sligo in 2015 in the same division.

Nobody will have to tell anyone with an interest in Ladies Football that Waterford has a tough encounter in their league opener.

The Banner Ladies last year reached the Intermediate All-Ireland Final, beating a fancied Tipperary side in the semi-finals but lost out to Kildare in the All-Ireland Final who made up for the disappointment of losing out to Waterford at the same stage of the championship twelve months earlier.

The two sides have met a number of times in recent years in the Munster Championship and while Waterford would lead on the head to head games between the two sides, Clare have always really put it up to Waterford and are likely to do so again this Sunday.

The home side will go into the game confident as they have played in a division higher than Waterford in recent years, something that they will feel that will stand to them.

Last year in addition to reaching the All-Ireland Final, they more than held their own, reaching the semi-finals losing out to Westmeath 4-12 to 1-11. The Midland County lost out in the final against Donegal.

From last Clare will have a number of changes to their team for this weekend.

Goalkeeper Emma O’Driscoll has opted out of the Inter County scene as have wing forward Niamh Keane, while centre field player Louise Henchy has retired from the inter county scene.

Eva O’Dea is out with a long term injury while Laura Egan another player involved in recent years and who was part of the panel that won the 2009 Intermediate All-Ireland Final is also expected to be out this coming weekend.

However, Neil Moynihan who is manager of the Clare side still has plenty of talent available to him in the likes of Niamh O’Dea, Ciara Hickey, Grainne Nolan, Ailish and Roisin Considine and Ellie O’Gorman.

Waterford manager Pat Sullivan will also have to do with players that have served him well since he took over as manager in 2015, as Linda Wall as retired from the Inter County scene while Grainne Kenneally is away on United Nations duty.

However, Pat Sullivan will feel that he has readymade replacements for these players.

In the last few years he has not shied off giving young players that he has worked with in the underage scene prior to becoming the senior team manager a chance to show what they can do and they have not let him down and no doubt any new players brought into the set up this year that he has worked with in the recent pass will not let him or his management team down.

Waterford this year also welcome Hannah Landers back to the fold this year having taken a year out from the game in 2016 and the Ballyduff Upper player no doubt will prove to be a major addition to the panel once more.

In the last few years, Pat Sullivan have started many of the league games his side have played in with some young players before bringing on more experienced players as the game progresses.

This is something that have served Waterford well in recent years and it will be interesting to see if the Management team go down the same route again in 2017, but no doubt they will be mindful of the fact that they are playing in a division higher this year and playing against better players.

While Clare will fancy their chances of winning the game on home soil, Waterford are good enough to get this year’s league off to a good start with three points from this game.