Waterford Intermediate Ladies Footballers begin quest for 7 in a row

This year’s Munster Intermediate Ladies Football Championship gets underway on Thursday evening with a repeat of last years final as Waterford and Limerick clash in the first round of the round robin part of the championship at Bansha.

Waterford this year will be hoping to win a seventh title in a row at this grade, and they will enter the competition as favourites, but it should be worth noting that this years final could be harder to reach and win than the previous six were.

The reason for this could be down to a number of reasons. While some good work is taking place in Waterford to develop players to play at this grade of football, the same hard work is taking place in the other competing counties as well.

Its also worth noting that like Waterford a few weeks back now, Limerick were in a League Final, where they suffered the same fete.

In Tipperary, the Premier Ladies won a Minor All-Ireland last year, and this year secondary schools in Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel (both of whom had players from Waterford involved), and Cahir had good runs in the Munster Colleges Championships, and many of the players involved in these teams could at some stage see action time for Tipperary this year.

And this year Clare will be involved in the competition. They have played Senior with the last number of years and in recent years they have played in a higher grade than the other three competing did in the National Leagues and as a result, their players will have gained plenty of experience and this should stand to them in the Intermediate championship this year.

Limerick may have played in Division four of the league this year, but their year up to now resembles Waterford’s.

They played five games in the league section of the competition, beating Wicklow by four points, Antrim by five points, Louth by thirteen points, Derry by seven points and in their final game in the league section beat Offaly by four points.

In the semi finals they again beat Louth, this time it was much closer as Limerick ran out 2-14 to 3-7 winners and in the final as often happens, the team that lost the first day won in the second meeting of the two sides as Offaly ran out 3-7 to 1-8 winners.

Waterford in the National League played in Division three and recorded wins over Wexford, Fermanagh, Sligo, Tipperary, Roscommon, and Leitrim in the group stages of the competition and got a walkover from Longford before beating Roscommon in the semi finals.

Like Limerick, Pat Sullivan’s Waterford team went into the final undefeated but in the second meeting of the year with Sligo, the Magpies ran out four point winners on a 2-12 to 2-8 score line.

Waterford will know that in different circumstances on that day they would have beaten Sligo. However, now that the championship is about to begin, that defeat will be forgotten about and the team will be setting their sights on the competition that all players in this grade of competition would be looking to win.

The sides met twice last year.

The first meeting took place in the opening round of games in the competition, and resulted in a 2-12 to 0-11 win for Waterford at Adare.

However, that score line did not do justice to the effort put in by the home side on that occasion.

The game proved to be a game of two halves, which Waterford shaded at the break, turning around holding a 1-7 to 0-7 advantage, Hannah Landers very early goal proving the difference between the sides in the first thirty minutes.

In the second half the home side continued to put Waterford under a lot of pressure and managed to get Waterford’s lead down to one point at one stage, but in the end a late Linda Wall goal and late points from Liz Devine, Aileen Wall and Elaine Power proved to be the difference between the sides.

Both sides recorded big wins over Tipperary, Limerick winning 6-13 to 1-13 at Claughaun and Waterford winning 4-23 to 1-8 at Carrick-on-Suir which meant that Waterford and Limerick were to clash again in the Munster Final.

This time things were much more clear-cut as Waterford ran out 2-20 to 1-11 winners.

Waterford inflicted much of the damage early in this game as Michelle Ryan and Hannah Landers scored the first three points of the game inside four minutes Megan Kelleher followed up with a goal for Limerick, but it was Waterford all the way for much of the remainder of the game.

Points from Mairead Wall, Liz Devine, Elaine Power, Aileen Wall and Michelle Ryan quickly followed to give Waterford a five point lead with ten minutes played.

Further scores from Hannah Landers, Linda Wall, Michelle Ryan and Liz Devine followed for Waterford before the break, with responses coming from Marie Curtin, Niamh Richardson and Dymphna O’Brien gave Waterford a 0-15 to 1-4 lead at the break.

Marie Curtin and Elaine Power traded early second half scores that day before Róisín Tobin set up Hannah Landers for the second goal of the game.

Further points from Michelle Ryan and Linda Wall followed before Elaine Power hit Waterford’s second goal of the game.

Waterford eased up after this and while Marie Curtin added five second half points and Claire O’Riordan and Stephanie Carroll added one each they proved to be mere consolation scores as Waterford ran out easy winners.

What kind of game we will get this year is hard to tell at this point. Will it be as close as the first game last year or will it be as one sided as last years Munster Final. Maybe it could be something in between. We will have to wait and find out.

One thing that could happen however if we are to go on games played involving the two sides this year, and that is that goals will be scored, maybe lots of them.

In seven games in the National League, Limerick hit an impressive thirteen goals. Waterford did even better. In eight games Pat Sullivan’s charges hit twenty-eight goals, an average of four per game. On four occasions Waterford hit five goals past their opponents in the league and on only one occasion did Waterford fail to score any goal in a game.

Both sides will show changes from last years championship.

Limerick will have an experienced panel and will be looking to the likes of Alva Neary, Janet Garvey, Megan Kelleher, Niamh Richardson, Siobhan Moloney, Dymphna O’Brien, Aoife Meaney, Stephanie Carroll, Clodagh Kirby and Marie Curtain etc. for much of their inspiration.

Waterford too will have a very experienced side with the likes of Karen McGrath (at the age of 20), Linda Wall, Michelle McGrath, Elaine Power, Mairead Wall, Gráinne Kenneally, Maria Delahunty, Aileen Wall (aged 21), Michelle Ryan, Mary Foley, Hannah Landers (aged 20) and Nora Dunphy providing experience to the panel, while Megan Dunford, Caoimhe McGrath, Kate McGrath, Mairead Power, Lauren McGregor, Ciara Hurley, Mary Kate Morrissey, Shauna Dunphy, Aoife and Emma Murray etc.

Waterford you would expect should have enough to see them through this game. The game will not be won not just by the 15 players that start the game for both sides, and those that come in during the course of the game.

If the respective benches were to be the winning of the game, then Waterford will have a great chance as Pat Sullivan will be able to call on players that would be automatic starters for many other sides playing at this grade of football.

However, Limerick will take a lot from the first meeting with Waterford last year, and they will know that if they are still close to Waterford in the final minutes of the game, a shock might be sprung.

Enda McDonnell Intermediate Championship Round 1 –

Thursday 28^th May at 8pm in Bansha - Waterford v Limerick

Saturday, May 30th at 3pm - Tipperary v Clare

Enda McDonnell Intermediate Championship Round 2 – To be played on Saturday, June 20th at 3pm

Clare v Limerick

Waterford v Tipperary

Enda McDonnell Intermediate Championship Round 3 –  To be played on Saturday, June 27th at 3.00pm

Tipperary v Limerick

Waterford v Clare

Venues for rounds two and three to be confirmed