Deise Ladies Push All-Ireland Champions All The Way

A sizeable attendance at the WIT Arena on Sunday Afternoon saw Ray O’Brien’s Waterford Senior Camogie Team push All-Ireland Champions Kilkenny all the way in the fourth round of games in this year’s National Camogie League.

With no other big games played locally on the day, some new faces were spotted in the stands at the venue and hopefully they were impressed enough by what is a good Waterford side to return to see this team in action again soon and hopefully that they will spread the word on what they saw and bring some of their friends with them the next time Waterford play.

The Waterford management team can’t but have been impressed with what they saw from their charges and how they reacted to a heavy defeat last week against Cork at the same venue when the visitors put in a very strong second half to win the game with nineteen points to spare.

There is an old saying in Gaelic Games that goals win games and it was certainly the case in this game, as the All-Ireland champions netted twice in this game which helped them to a four point win.

The ability of Beth Carton should be known to all G.A.A. Supporters at this stage and the De La Salle Club player was again to the fore in this game as she accounted for all but one of Waterford’s scores. A notable statistic from this game was that she was presented with fourteen chances to score from plays and took twelve of the chances, and with the two that she failed to convert she was only centimetres on both occasions to adding to her overall tally on the day.

 Kilkenny last weekend lost out to Wexford at Gorey and they retained just six of the side that started that game for this game, the lucky six being Laura Murphy, Claire Phelan, Kelly Anne Doyle, Miriam Walsh, Julie Ann Malone and Jenny Clifford.

It was not easy however to find out this information as while the visitors submitted a panel to the Waterford County Board with their panel for the day for the hand out given to patrons entering the ground, they failed to submit the numbers that the players were wearing. And while the members of the local press which were present at the game to report on the game for this week’s newspapers were able to get the line out ahead of the game, when the game started it was quickly noticed that the players were wearing squad numbers which required one member of the press to approach the Kilkenny bench to find out who was wearing what number.

Waterford had a fantastic start to this game.

Beth Carton pointed from play on two minutes only for it to be cancelled out two minutes later with an effort from Kelly Ann Doyle.

The De La Salle sharp shooter who could have put a sliotar through the eye of a needle on the afternoon such was the quality of her shooting followed up with three points in a row, all from placed balls to give Waterford a 0-4 to 0-1 lead with thirteen minutes played.

The following few minutes proved to be the most crucial of the opening half as Julie Anne Malone pointed a minute later and on eighteen minutes after she was set up by Jenny Clifford Miriam Walsh beat Brianna O’Regan from close range.

Jenny Clifford and Julie Anne Malone followed up with points for the visiting side to give them a three point cushion on the scoreboard by the twenty fourth minute, after which there was just two further scores in the opening half, one each, the first from a Beth Carton free on twenty six minutes to leave just two between the sides, and then another score from a free, this time from Claire Phelan to give her side a 1-5 to 0-5 lead as the sides headed to the dressing rooms.

If the first half was close so too was the second half.

Miriam Walsh and Beth Carton swapped early scores, before Beth and Niamh Deely did likewise. Another Beth Carton converted free on thirty nine minutes made it a two point game but it was followed with a similar score by Michelle Quilty seconds later, to keep three between the sides.

The same two players again traded scores before Michelle Quilty following some good work down the road side of the main field placed the sliotar past Brianna O’Regan for the second time at the midway point of the second half.

Grace O’Donnell put Kilkenny seven in front moments later, but the rest of the game saw Waterford prove to be the better of the two sides.

Two more Beth Carton points were followed with an effort from Jenny Reddy four minutes short of the hour mark, after which Kelly Anne Doyle pointed second later.

Beth Carton brought her tally for the afternoon to a dozen scores on fifty seven minutes and two minutes later Niamh Rockett who again worked very hard got her name on the score sheet.

Beth Carton brought the scoring to a close a minute into stoppage time, but it was goals that Waterford needed at this point if they were going to get something from the game.

Waterford have one more game left, that away to Tipperary, but after a very good showing here they will travel to the Premier County confident that they can add to the win they recorded against Dublin earlier in the campaign.

This was a game where once more we saw the progress that is being made in the game in Waterford. The scoreboard showed at the end of the game that Waterford were behind by four points, but the only loser here was those that opted to stay away from this game on an afternoon that there was no other big action within the county on the same afternoon.   

Waterford: Brianna O’Regan; Áine Power, Fiona Morrissey, Claire Whyte; Mairead Power, Shona Kiernan, Jenny McCarthy; Aoife Landers, Lorraine Bray; Kate McMahon, Iona Heffernan, Emma Hannon-Roche; Beth Carton, Niamh Rockett, Catriona McGlone. Subs: Niamh Ahearne for Iona Heffernan (HT), Niamh Murphy for Aoife Landers (60).

Scorers: Beth Carton 0-13 (12f), Niamh Rockett 0-1.

Kilkenny: Anne Marie Lennon; Miriam Frisby, Catherine Foley, Laura Murphy; Claire Phelan, Meighan Farrell, Aisling Nolan; Niamh Deely, Jenny Reddy; Kelly Anne Doyle, Julie Ann Malone, Denise Gaule; Danielle Morrissey, Miriam Walsh, Jenny Clifford. Subs: Michelle Quilty for Danielle Morrissey (HT). Michelle Teehan for Laura Murphy (37), Grace O’Donnell for Jenny Clifford (40), Stacey Quirke for Aisling Nolan (42), Roisin Phelan for Miriam Frisby (48), Áine Gannon for Denise Gaule (55), Grace Walsh for Niamh Deely (59).

Scorers: Miriam Walsh 1-1, Denise Gaule 1-0, Kelly Anne Doyle, Julie Ann Malone, Michelle Quilty (2f) 0-2 each, Jenny Clifford, Claire Phelan (f), Niamh Deely, Grace O’Donnell, Jenny Reddy 0-1 each.

Referee: Cathal Egan (Cork).