Waterford Begin Camogie League At Home to Wexford

We may have just past the midway point in February but for the Waterford Senior Camogie team, a new season begins on Sunday afternoon when they take on Wexford in the opening round of games in this year’s National Camogie League.

With Waterford playing Tipperary in the National Hurling League at Walsh Park on the same afternoon, it would have been nice if this game was a curtain raiser to the sides that clashed in last year’s Munster Senior Hurling Final but it was not to be and this game will now go ahead at the nearby WIT Arena at Carriganore with the game having a 3-30pm start.

To have the two games played together would have been a good way of promoting the game of Camogie and maybe winning over some new fans, but hopefully many that will be in Walsh Park will make the short journey along the Cleyboy Road to the Carriganore venue to see the Camogie Team in action, even if they miss the first few minutes of the Camogie game should they stay to the very end of the hurling game.

Waterford are under new management this year as Ray O’Brien have taken over from Don McMahon and he has retained many of the players that were involved last year.

The Saint Anne’s pair of Jennie Simpson and Charlotte Raher has called time on an outstanding Inter County career having serving the county well over the past decade or so, but into the panel in their place come a number of players that have impressed of late.

Wexford appeared in last year’s Senior All-Ireland Semi Final and they will make the journey to Waterford bringing with them a great deal of the panel that brought them to that stage of the competition and will have players of some class like Karen Atkinson, Áine Lacey, Emma Walsh, Linda Bolger, Una Sinnott, Stacey Kehoe and Mags Darcy with them and they will be confident that they can begin the campaign with a win.

Waterford last year won just one game each in the League and the Championship and will be looking to do better this year. Last year was a learning curve having come up to Division one in the league after winning the Division Two final in 2015 and winning the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship that same year.

The side will have learned a lot from last year and with many of the younger players a year older and with more experienced they have to field that they are more than equipped to improve on last year and to even push for one of the places available in the knockout stages of the competition.

The Waterford management team have a strong panel available to them for this weekend’s game and while there is some top names missing, there is no doubt that they will be looking to what they have for this weekend and should this happen Waterford will be a match for most sides.

Wexford will go into the game as the warmest of favourites, but this is a Waterford will feel that they can win.

Waterford Panel for Game against Wexford: Tracey Kiely, Lorraine Bray, Jenny McCarthy, Laura Murray (Cappoquin), Áine and Mairead Power (Piltown), Emma Hannon-Roche, Annie Glavey, Ciara Jackman, Kate Lynch (Gailltir), Claire Whyte, Niamh Rockett, Becky Kavanagh, Sibeal Harney (Saint Anne’s), Aoife Landers, Fiona Morrissey (An Rinn), Shona Kirwan, Catriona McGlone, Marie Russell (Lismore), Iona Heffernan, Niamh Ahearne (Ferrybank), Kate McMahon, Sadie Mai Rowe (Butlerstown), Beth Carton, Brianna O’Regan, Ciara Twomey, Niamh Murphy (De La Salle), Valerie O’Brien (Roanmore), Kaeisha Tobin (Dungarvan).