Limerick win at Carriganore but Waterford are moving in the right direction

Limerick made it two wins from two games as they beat Waterford 2-11 to 0-8 at Carriganore on Sunday afternoon, the second game that Waterford lost by a nine point margin in this years league.

Played in front of the TV Camera’s for the Six-One news on the same evening and also for a posting on the Camogie Associations Facebook Page, the visitors always had the upper hand over Waterford and were 1-6 to 0-3 up at the break.

Niamh Mulcahy was influential throughout for the visiting side hitting 0-9 over the course of the hour, five of which came from play.

While Waterford were beaten by nine points, they had some fine performers on the day with Mairead Power at corner back, Fiona Morrissey at centre back, the centre field pairing of Trish Jackman and Lorraine Bray and Niamh Rockett at centre forward the stand out performers in a team where all players used on the day tried their hardest.

The Waterford management team of Sean Fleming, Chris Dempsey, Ita Murphy and David Murphy made four positional changes to the team that lost out to Kilkenny at Piltown two weeks ago bringing in Deirdre Brennan, Becky Kavanagh, Aisling Power and Sibeal Harney in from the start with Tracey Kiely, Claire Murphy, Zoe O’Donoghue and Kate McMahon the players to miss out, and also made a number of positional changes and in the main will be happy with what they saw in this game.

Limerick too made changes from their win in their only game in the league to date when they beat Cork, bringing Modeligo woman Marguerite McCarty in for Noreen Barry, Deborah Murphy for Sinead McNamara, Muireann Creamer for Cliona Lane all having come on against Cork and did enough in that game to stake a place in the team from the off for this game while Niamh Ryan also came in for Sarah Carey and just like the Waterford management team the Limerick mentors also made positional changes from the win over Cork for this game.

In time to come, quiz buffs might be asked to name the first Waterford player to score on home soil in a top flight camogie game and they would do worse than forget the name of Trish Jackman as it was the Gailltir Club player that opened the scoring in this game on three minutes when she put over a 21 metre free.

Limerick hit back with a brace of Niamh Mulcahy points, both helped over the crossbar by Deirdre Brennan with Caoimhe Costello adding a goal from close range for the visitors in between following some good work by Muireann Creamer and Niamh Ryan in the build up.

Two more Trish Jackman frees on twenty and twenty-three minutes left just two points between the sides in Limerick’s favour but the visiting side would end the half strong, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Niamh Mulcahy who shoot over four unanswered points, three from 21 metre frees in the last six minutes of the half.

There was a lively start to the start of the second half as Niamh Mulcahy and Trish Jackman swapped scores from placed balls inside the opening five minutes before Caoimhe Costello ran at the Waterford defence and shot over the head of Deirdre Brennan to give her side a 1-8 to 0-4 lead after thirty-seven minutes.

Waterford from the restart after Caoimhe Costello’s score attacked up field and quickly got the ball to Beth Carton who saw an effort for goal cleared off the line and when the sliotar found its way to the De La Salle player seconds later another effort for goal came crashing off the Limerick crossbar.

Caoimhe Costello and Beth Carton swapped scores before Trish Jackman put over a free on forty-three minutes.

Limerick added a second goal at the end of the third quarter when Niamh Ryan picked out Sinead McNamara who had replaced Siobhan Enright just before the break ran at the Waterford goal after getting inside the defence and when one on one with Deirdre Brennan she gave the Butlerstown club player no chance as she gave her side a 2-9 to 0-6 advantage.

The final quarter proved to be a even contest with both sides landing two further scores each.

Trish Jackman put over her second ’45 of the game on forty-seven minutes awarded when the umpires at the dressing room end of the ground brought to the attention of the referee that Claire Keating was advancing further than she should when restarting the game after the ball had gone dead.

Niamh Mulcahy put over her eight score of the game on fifty minutes and two minutes from the hour mark Jennie Simpson with her last action of the game got her name on the score sheet.

Limerick in added time hit the last score of the game with the last puck of the game as the impressive Niamh Mulcahy split the Waterford uprights for the ninth time with a free.

For Limerick in this game, Niamh Mulcahy was a constant thorn in the side of the Waterford defence, while for Waterford there was impressive performers throughout the side with Mairead Murphy, Fiona Morrissey, Lorraine Bray, Trish Jackman and Niamh Rockett the pick of the bunch.

Waterford: Deirdre Brennan; Mairead Power, Iona Heffernan, Becky Kavanagh; Claire Whyte, Fiona Morrissey, Charlotte Raher; Lorraine Bray, Trish Jackman; Sibeal Harney, Niamh Rockett, Beth Carton; Aisling Power, Jennie Simpson, Caithriona McGlone. Subs: Zoe O’Donoghue for Caithriona McGlone (40), Claire Murphy for Aisling Power (50), Kate McMahon for Sibeal Harney (52), Saoirse Bonner for Jennie Simpson (60).

Scorers: Trish Jackman 0-6 (4f, 2 ’45), Beth Carton, Jennie Simpson 0-1 each.

Limerick: Claire Keating; Marguerite McCarthy, Lorraine McCarthy, Judith Mulcahy; Rebecca Delee, Fiona Hickey, Niamh Richardson; Mary O’Callaghan, Karen O’Leary; Siobhan Enright, Muireann Creamer, Niamh Mulcahy; Niamh Ryan, Caoimhe Costello, Deborah Murphy. Subs: Sinead McNamara for Siobhan Enright (29), Cliona Lane for Muireann Creamer (51), Leanne Browne for Niamh Richardson (58), Noreen Barry for Marguerite McCarthy (61).

Scorers: Niamh Mulcahy 0-9 (4f), Caoimhe Costello 1-2, Sinead McNamara 1-0.

Referee: Cathal Egan (Cork).

 

League Table Irish Daily Star National League Div 1 Group 2

Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff	Points
Kilkenny	3	2	0	1	60	29	31	6
Limerick	2	2	0	0	31	17	14	6
Cork	3	2	0	1	42	34	8	6
Waterford	2	0	0	2	24	42	-18	0
Derry	2	0	0	2	10	45	-35	0