Waterford are 60 Minutes from Munster Camogie Final Spot

Sunday afternoon is a big day for Camogie in Waterford.

The commitment of the County Camogie Board to promoting the game and allowing as many players as is possible to wear the county shirt is to be commended, as for the first time in a long time, maybe for the first time ever, they have put together a second adult team to play in the championship, something I and am sure many others will agree on is something that will be welcomed by those that play the game within the county as it affords them the chance to show what they can do on the big stage.

Sunday’s game is against Kerry in the Munster Junior Semi-Final at Walsh Park and while many of the ‘Big Gun’s’ within the county won’t be involved in this game, the game allows those that are playing the chance to shine and maybe be included in the senior team in the not too distant future.

There will be some that will be saying this is a game that Waterford should win, and win handy, but nobody involved with the Waterford set up will be under estimating the ladies that will be making the journey from predominantly North Kerry and in particular the most North Western regions of the Kingdom.

Waterford may well be fielding a second string team in this game, but for the visiting side it will be their strongest available starting fifteen.

Like in hurling the most northern part of Kerry and along the Limerick border camogie is very strong.

While the game is very much in its infancy in the Kingdom, it has come on a long way in the last few years.

Central to the growth of the game in Kerry is the Clanmaurice Club, a relatively new club in North Kerry which is an amalgamation of a number of small clubs in the county in recent years.

The club provides over 20 members of the panel that will travel to Waterford this Sunday which is no mean achievement, with the Cillard and Causeway club between them providing six members of the panel.

While like in hurling there is great comradery in camogie, there is also a great wiliness between clubs and counties to promote the game and Clanmaurice and Kerry have benefited from this as the Limerick County Board allowed that Clanmaurice Club in recent years to compete in their Leagues and Championship.

Camogie in Limerick is strong. They do not allow their inter county players to compete in the leagues, so allowing none inter county players get their chance to shine, but while they allowed Clanmaurice to participate they broke that rule and allowed inter county players from the Kingdom to take part. It could be argued maybe that they had no choice but to break the rule after admitting them into their leagues and championships as can be seen from above almost all the clubs players are inter county players.

The Clanmaurice Club and Kerry have also benefited from being allowed to enter summer leagues run by LIT.

In recent years Kerry have a National League Division Four title and have also beaten Cork in the competition they play in this weekend, albeit a second team from Cork, just like Waterford this weekend, and nobody needs telling how strong Camogie is in the Rebel County.

Eighteen months ago Clanmaurice with many of the players involved this weekend contested an All-Ireland Junior Camogie Club Final against Johnstownbridge from Kildare who won the game 2-10 to 1-5.

And so to Waterford, what of them.

The side might be without their household names but a quick look through the side shows that there is lots of ability in the panel.

The name of Áine Lyng stands out straight away. Áine was part of the Waterford Under 16 team to win the All-Ireland Final some years back and was involved with the Waterford Junior Camogie side for a number of years, where she made a number of appearances at Croke Park before she made the journey across the Irish Sea for a number of years.

She resumed playing with Gailltir in recent times and helped them to win a first County Final since 2008 last year and to help them win a first ever Munster Final a few weeks later. Her inclusion and her experience in this team is going to be vital.

But she is not the only big name player in this panel.

Right throughout the panel there is players that have played on different underage teams in recent years, players like Niamh Murphy, Sadie Mai Rowe, Abbie Dunphy, Kaeisha Tobin, Taylor Murray, Saoirse English, Áine Power, Aoife Shanahan and Aisling Baumann to pick but just a few.

The management team have spread their net wide to put together a side to field in this game and will be picking from players from clubs like De La Salle, Dungarvan, Butlerstown, Gaultier, Tramore, Portlaw, An Rinn, Clonea, Ferrybank and Piltown.

Credit as pointed out must go to the Waterford County Board and to the Clubs for the work they are putting in to promote the game.

It would be nice to see the fruits of their work come to fruition in the not too distant future. All involved in the game are working with limited resources and with a small but faithful band of supporters. They no doubt would love to see the popularity of the game grow, and with no other major hurling games on in the county this weekend, those that support the men’s teams could do worse than make their way to Walsh Park on Sunday afternoon to see the skills and commitments of a group of players and volunteers who deserved all the support that they can get.