Waterford and Dublin To Battle It Out In A Must Win Game For Both Sides

During my time in school from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s Maths was a subject that never really appealed to me.

In my time doing Maths however I did learn some of the basics, the Sums as we called them going to school.

And I did enough to work out some permeation that could well be called upon for the weekend coming.

When it comes to Camogie in Waterford in the last decade and a half great progress has being made.

It all began with Waterford winning the Under 16 ‘B’ Championship then considered the minor Championship against Armagh at Portlaoise back in 2003.

Since then there has been numerous grate days for the game in Waterford including four visits for county teams to Croke Park on All-Ireland Finals Day, winning the Junior Championship at the third time of asking in 2011, winning the Intermediate Championship against a fancied Kildare side four years later and winning two league finals at provincial grounds along the way.

And there also have been some great days for other underage teams along the way and not forgetting some of the club teams at Féile na nGael and when Lismore and Gailltir won Munster Intermediate Club crowns in recent years and Lismore appearing in two All-Ireland Finals, winning the first after a replay in the spring of 2014.

This coming weekend while much attention will be on proceedings at Walsh Park when Derek McGrath’s Waterford take on Brian Cody’s Kilkenny in the third round of this year’s National Hurling League, a short distance away at the WIT Arena at Carriganore Donal O’Rourke’s Waterford side will take on Dublin in the penultimate round of games in this year’s National Camogie League in what is a must win game for both sides.

Heading into this weekend’s fixtures it looks as if Kilkenny with nine points from their three games played are sure of a semi final place and right behind them Dublin, Limerick and Waterford are all on four points from three games.

A win for Waterford would move them to seven points and assuming that Kilkenny field as strong as side as they were all along and therefore beat Limerick, when Waterford take on Limerick at a Limerick venue next week Waterford should they avoid defeat in that game would advance to the semi finals of the Division One league for the very first time. Any other results over the next two weekends are not worth thinking about if you are a supporter of the Waterford side.

It would be expected that between five and six thousand people will descend on the Keane’s Road venue in Waterford City and that a crowd about one tenth of that figure would visit the Carriganore venue a short distance away.

In an ideal world it would be great to have the two games played at the one venue, but we don’t live in an ideal world, and in Waterford we don’t have a good history of staging double header inter county games, but it would be great to see a bigger than usual gathering of support make their way to Carriganore as this Waterford Senior Camogie side is one which really deserves a huge support.

This is a side that has made great progress in recent years and have no doubt they will improve again going into the future and it would be no surprise for those watching them over the past number of years to see them play in some big finals in the next number of years.

When these two sides clashed in the league last year at Coolock it was Waterford with Beth Carton in outstanding form that made the journey home with a 0-11 to 0-7 victory under their belts.

The two sides met again in the championship, this time at Walsh Park and on that day it was the visitors that emerged victors on a 0-15 to 1-10 score line and after this the Dublin side went on to contest the All-Ireland Semi Final against Kilkenny, and for this reason, while Waterford will be confident going into this weekend’s game, they won’t be underestimating the challenge that Dublin will pose.

In their games played to date, Siobhan Kehoe in the middle of the field has been outstanding for the Sky Blues. In their most recent game which they beat Meath 0-15 to 0-10 she split the posts 0-8 and if given the chance again this weekend especially if there is any indiscipline shown by the Waterford players anywhere within her shooting capabilities from placed balls.

The Sky Blues did not reach the Semi Finals of last year’s championship with just one main player in their side.

They have plenty of class available to them including Faye McCarthy between the posts, Eimear McCarthy in the middle of the field alongside Siobhan Kehoe as well as the likes of Emma Flanagan, Zoe O’Donoghue and Grace O’Shea who also know where the posts are.

Last time out Waterford with a depleted team because of illness really put it up to Kilkenny and will feel that with a full strength team or a near full strength team they could have been much closer to the Cats.

 At full strength Waterford could well line out with Brianna O’Regan challenged by Ciara Jackman for the number one shirt, in defence, Mairead Power, Iona Heffernan, Jenny McCarthy, Aoife Landers, Claire Whyte, Shauna Fitzgerald, Sibeal Harney, Emma Hannon, Marie Russell and Shauna Kiernan battling it out for positions from two to seven.

In the middle of the field Lorraine Bray and Clara Griffin who is new to this level of Camogie have paired up twice and have hardly put a foot wrong to date so to see the pair team up again would hardly be a surprise.

In Attack just as in defence Waterford have plenty of options being able to call on the likes of Deirdre Fahy, Fiona Morrissey, Áine Lyng both who can also play in defence, Niamh Rockett, Beth Carton, Aisling Power back playing at this level after two years away, Beth Carton, Kaiesha Tobin who is another player new to this level of Camogie but with proven ability, Becky Kavanagh, Claire Murphy, Niamh Murphy and Caithriona McGlone amongst others, Waterford have a real good team.

 Both sides will feel that they have it to take all three points from this game. Both sides are separated by score difference, Waterford having scored seven point score difference advantage over the Sky Blues.

This could well prove to be a keenly contested fixture, one that could go right to the wire, but one that with Waterford playing on a field that they know inside out they are capable of winning.