Familiar Look to County Senior Football Final

It might have taken five months to happen, but the twelve teams that started out in the quest to win this year’s county senior football championship have become two, and baring the need for a replay, something that cannot and should not be ruled out, we should know who this year’s County Senior Football Champions are by about half past three on Sunday evening.

Regular readers to what I have to say about Gaelic Games in Waterford will know what I have had to say about this year’s Senior Football Championship. To sum up, there is no way it should have taken seven months to reach this stage of the competition, and someone along the way will have to hold their hands up and say things went horribly wrong this year, and to give assurances that the same will not happen again in 2018 or any year beyond that. Just like in Dáil Éireann during the week, someone will have to be held accountable, and admit things not just went wrong, but horribly wrong.

The days of the tail wagging its dog has to be got rid of and its time that the dog began to wag its tail.

In saying all this, I for one welcomed the new look championship in 2017 when it was announced a change would be made for this year, and would like to see something similar happen in hurling, and maybe with a reduction in the amount of teams competing in both competitions going into the future.

It is no great surprise to see Stradbally and The Nire reach this year’s County Final. They over the past few years have proven to be the two best sides in the county, each winning the championship in the last two years.

This Sunday’s final excluding replays will be the ninth time that the two sides have met at this stage of the competition, with results between the two sides in County Finals well and truly going in favour of Stradbally, winning six of the previous eight games between the two sides, but they will need no telling that it was The Nire in 2006 that stopped them from winning an unique five titles in a row when they won 1-5 to 0-3, and it was The Nire that won the last County Final between the two sides, winning 0-11 to 1-6 back in 2014.

A win for Stradbally in this game would be talked about for a long time in the Cove Village and its environs for a long time as it would draw them level with Dungarvan on 19 titles as the most successful clubs when it comes to County Final wins within the County, four ahead of their nearest rivals Kilrossanty, while a win for The Nire would put them level with Rathgormack on 9 titles since they won their first back in 1993, but more importantly for them it will be only the second time that they have put back to back titles together since they beat Dungarvan and Gaultier in 1993 and 1994.

The sides have already met in the championship this year, playing each other in the second round of the competition, a game held over until after the All-Ireland Final. Both games as you would expect went all out for the win in this game, even though whichever side would lose the game would fancy their chances of getting to the semi finals via the scenic route. It was Stradbally that won the game, meaning that The Nire had to wait till the hurling championship was complete before playing again, while Stradbally had to wait till last weekend for their next competitive game when they beat Kilrossanty in the second of the semi finals at Fraher Field.

That scenic route for The Nire has in the last three weeks have seen then receive a walk over from Gaultier, beat Rathgormack, Ballinacourty and Clashmore before staging a comeback that the writers of the Roy of the Rovers comic would find hard to beat last Sunday against An Rinn in the semi finals.

Had this game been played on time for the winners to advance to participate in the Munster Club Championship, I would have had a sneaky feeling that the current champions would have put back to back titles together.

The last few weeks have seen the ground get very wet and heavy and The Nire playing so many games in such a short space of time is bound to have taken it from their legs, and they also have lost Jamie Barron with an injury and last week played without long standing corner back Justin Walsh, again reported to have missed out with an injury.

They have lost a lot of the team that won last year’s final for this game for different reasons. The players that have come in have to their credit played well to date, but they have not played a side like Stradbally in the latter days of the calendar year so far this year, and as we know only too well, there is nobody like Stradbally to grind out a win often in difficult conditions.

Like The Nire Stradbally have lost some players that were established first choice players from their starting set up in the last year or two. And just like The Nire they have some very experienced players who have been around now some time and who are no strangers to winning the big games. Of the experience on both sides, you can’t but feel that Stradbally might marginally have the more experienced players, especially to come off the bench in the closing stages of the game it its close and there for the winning.

Earlier this year I predicted that The Nire would win back to back titles this year, but a lot of water has flown under the bridge since doing so.

Every player likes to get a lot of games each year, but I for one cant but think that they would like to have then spaced out a little more than The Nire have had them recently, but not as much as they had them spaced between Round One and Round Two and then again Round Three recently.

For me, if there is to be a winner this weekend, it’s going to be Stradbally, by a small margin. The only pity is that whichever side does take the Conway Cup home with them does not get the chance to play in the Munster Championship because whichever one would have, i feel would have given the competition a good go this year.

Past Clashes between the two in County Finals

1987	Stradbally	1-9	The Nire	1-5
2002	Stradbally	0-12	The Nire	0-10
2004	Stradbally	2-8	The Nire	1-4
2005	Stradbally	1-8	The Nire	1-4
2006	The Nire	1-5	Stradbally	0-3
2009	Stradbally	2-5	The Nire	0-9
2012	Stradbally	1-8	The Nire	0-10
2014	The Nire	0-11	Stradbally	0-6

 

Stradbally are currently second in the Roll of Honour table with 18 County Senior Football titles, one behind Dungarvan. The 18 titles were won in – 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1987, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015.

The Nire currently have eight County Final’s won, and are fifth in the Roll of Honour table and will go level with Rathgormack with a win on Sunday. They have won their eight titles in 1993, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2016.

 

Path’s to this year’s County Final.

Stradbally:

Round 1	Stradbally	1-19	Ardmore	1-9	6 May
Round 2	Stradbally	2-15	The Nire	2-11	10 September
Semi Final	Stradbally	0-13	Kilrossanty	0-11	26 November

 

The Nire:

Round 1	The Nire	0-9	Clashmore	0-8	5 May
Round 2	The Nire	2-11	Stradbally	2-15	10 September
Round 3	The Nire	Received walk over	Gaultier	Conceded	8 November
Round 4	The Nire	0-18	Rathgormack	1-8	12 November
Round 5	The Nire	2-6	Ballinacourty	0-8	16 November
Round 6	The Nire	2-15	Clashmore	1-7	21 November
Semi Final	The Nire	3-8	An Rinn	2-10	26 November

Football Championship leaving bittersweet taste

The following article appeared in the ‘Munster Express’ newspaper dated Tuesday 14 November 2017 and was written by myself.

To much fanfare, almost a year ago, a new look County Senior Football Championship was introduced for the current edition.

The listening world was told or maybe lead to believe that would be more competitive Championship, with a series of ‘dead rubber’ games being done away with, as each and every game would have two sides battling it out for something meaningful.

Most new look championships tend to come with teething problems, but to say that this year’s Waterford Senior Football Championship has become farcical would be an understatement. And I that someone will have to hold their hands up very high and admit that they got things not just wrong but very very wrong.

A person could expect to hear something like “we (Waterford) got to the All-Ireland Hurling Final and that held things up”, but that argument simply doesn’t stand up.

Yes, everyone wants to see Waterford win an All-Ireland Hurling Final, but it cannot come at a cost.

Many club panels operating in the senior grade in Waterford are operating with 25 to 30 players with some with even bigger panels.

But I suspect the majority are operating with 19 to 21 players and I base this on the names of many team sheets also include players who are also lining out at Intermediate and Junior level. Such players frequently find themselves up the numbers for 15 v 15 games during training sessions or to play midweek secondary competitions when some players are away from home for work or study purposes, or while some players are involved with different inter county panels.

But can we really have a situation whereby competitions are held up by a minority of players, barely in double figures in Waterford playing in competitions for the majority of senior club footballers – in excess of 300 players.

Can we really blame players who may be fed off with the G.A.A. given that they’re not getting a regular flow of games each year, and opt instead to play soccer or rugby, thus foregoing hurling and football?

Two years ago, the County Senior Football Championship ran late, and we saw our Senior Football Final played on a miserable Friday Evening, with winners Stradbally forced to do battle against Nemo Rangers in the Munster Championship less than 24 hours after they won the County title.

Since that night, we have seen no member of the Stradbally Club play Senior Football for the County. We can only surmise as to why this is the case, and in truth it is hard to blame them for the shambolic way they were treated.

Since the turn of the Millennium Stradbally are the most successful senior football club in the county.

Within their ranks they have some very fine footballers and in the past two years it could well be argued that Waterford could well have achieved promotion from Division Four of the National Football League with the best Stradbally players in a white and blue shirt.

 We might have won an extra game or two in the championship, including last summer’s Munster clash with Cork in Fraher Field.

Last week we saw another very embarrassing situation when it comes to Waterford Football. Gaultier are a very proud footballing side, who along with Rathgormack and Saint Saviours have been keeping the football flag flying in the east of the county.

Yes, it can be somewhat understood why what happened (or what didn’t happen) last week came about.

Gaultier have players who hurl playing with either Passage or Ballygunner Hurling Clubs, and of course we know that Ballygunner are in Sunday’s Munster Senior Club Hurling Final and there is a crossover of players – think the Hutchinson brothers and Billy O’Keeffe, to name but three. But at the same time, there is no justifiable reason as to why the Senior Football Championship has been held up for so long.

This year’s county senior football championship began over the first weekend of May. The second round of games was played at the end of July, and it was only in the middle of last week that we found out the outcome of a round three game.

In the meantime we have three clubs twiddling their thumbs since the middle of July who have reached the semi finals, not knowing when they are going to be involved in the championship again. And the same could well be argued for the other nine clubs.

I for one don’t know how these clubs are fixed in relation to team trainers (i.e. if they are paying a trainer expenses or not).

If they are then they’ve invested a lot of money spent this year as they have to be kept ticking over just in case a game is sprung on them and their players have to be ready and fit.  

Waterford were the first team to bow out of the All-Ireland Football qualifiers, yet Waterford have still failed to compete its Senior Football Championship in time to play in the Munster Championship.

          And this isn’t right, given how competitive The Nire, Ballinacourty and Stradbally have proven at that level.

          Might we see a situation develop in the future we see more and more footballers not making themselves available for the county?  To be honest, it’d be hard to blame anyone who reaches such a decision.

          Football has always been the second code in Waterford, we all realise this, but it’s hard to recall a time where it appears to have been less considered in terms of scheduling than it is being at present.

          It’d be great to see the game getting a little more consideration and it’d be great to see matches run off over a coherent schedule. But sadly, given the events of this year, we don’t appear any closer to that ever materialising, and that’s simply not good enough.

Ambitious Plan By Waterford Ladies Football County Board

The Ladies Football and Camogie County Boards across the country are often at the mercy of the G.A.A. and G.A.A. Clubs around the county to make their facilities available to them to make facilities available to them to play their games.

Not like across the country the same applies here in Waterford.

To the credit of County Boards and indeed to Clubs, facilities are made available to their sister organisations as much as possible for the playing of games.

Here in Waterford, both County Boards are extra lucky as the excellent facilities owned by Waterford Institute of Technology at the WIT Arena at Carriganore are also available to both Boards if they are needed and are of course available.

Sometimes however the Ladies Football and Camogie associations are not as lucky when it comes to the playing of its games.

In 2015, Offaly played against Limerick in the National League Division Four Final.

Both county boards were given the opportunity to play the final at Parnell Park in Dublin, in front of the TG4 cameras and the game shown live on that station.

But there was a but to the offer, a very big BUT.

If the game was to be played at Parnell Park and the game shown live on TG4, both sides would have to give up the right to use the dressing rooms at the North Dublin venue.

They could have used played the game at another venue, one more central to both counties, where they would have the use of dressing rooms and whatever facilities were available at the ground, but the game would not be shown live on TG4.

The reason why Offaly and Limerick could not use the dressing rooms at Parnell Park was that the game would be the curtain raiser to that years All-Ireland under 21 Football final between Tipperary and Tyrone.

Because of the growing size’s of Inter county panels and management teams as well as those that work in the background to these teams, all the dressing rooms at Parnell Park would be assigned to the two under 21 teams, and it was up to the ladies teams to find where ever they wanted to tog out and tog off and to shower after their games. You could well say that the G.A.A. were making the two ladies sides very much second class players (at best). It was like if their game did not matter.

Offaly used the facilities of a nearby school to tog out for the game, while their opponents used the facilities of a nearby club.

Both sides did their pre-match warm up where they togged out and then returned to the dressing room area which they were using to gather their gear and clothing and got on board their team coach and made the way to Parnell Park.

The sides on arriving at Parnell Park were shown into two small function rooms where they were allowed to leave their gear and clothing during the match. Both sides had two options. Use the small rooms or else leave their gear on the bus and remain on the field at half time in belting rain and cold.

After the game, one side cold, wet and delighted, the other cold, wet and disappointed headed back to the small function room, collected what they had left there, get on board their coach and head back to where they togged off and warmed up to shower and change into dry clothing.

Is this what the G.A.A. should be about? Should there be a first or second class player? Should the often referred to elite player be treated to any other player?

The answer of course is very much no to all of these questions.

With some time now, the officers of Waterford Ladies Football Board are working hard to try and ensure that they are not relying on anyone to play their important games.

Ladies Football and Camogie County Boards from North to South and East to West have tried to purchase their own grounds and the Waterford Ladies Football Board are trying to become the latest to do so.

If and when the Waterford Ladies Football County Board does purchase and develop their own grounds it will prove to be a very valuable asset.

To do this is not going to easy, and the hard work begins in earnest this coming weekend.

The County Board are holding a “Night at the Dogs” on Saturday evening at Kilcohan Park in Waterford.

Tickets for the night are available from all of the Ladies Football Clubs in the county and i am sure that they are also available from the County Board Officers.

Tickets cost €10 each and there is also the option of purchasing a family ticket for €20 which admits two adults and two children.

The gates at Kilcohan Park open on Saturday evening around 7pm with the first race of the evening getting underway 50 minutes later.

Standing to be corrected on this, but it is usually the case when such nights take place, the organisation which benefits on the night usually only do so with pre-purchased tickets and they get little if any of the takings taken up at the gate on the night, so if you are interested in Ladies Football and would like to see the Board own and develop their own grounds in the county, why not purchase a ticket as soon as possible, even if you cannot go on the night.

Munster Title Number Five For Lismore

A great year for the Lismore Camogie Club came to a close earlier this afternoon when the Club won the Munster Intermediate Club Championship beating Cork intermediate Champions Newcestown at Mahon, adding the title to the County Senior League (Denny Buckley Cup) and the County Senior Championship that they have already won this year.

Lismore appearing in their sixth Munster Final at this level went into the game as the favourites, and although five points separated the sides at the end of the sixty plus minutes played of this game, they will be the first to admit that they were pushed all the way to the final whistle by a Newcestown side that had a nice blend of youth and experience.

Lismore wing back Marie Russell was presented with the Player of the Match award after the game, but she was not the only player to shine as there were also performances of note from Tanya Morrissey, Shona Curran, Sharon Williams, Caithriona McGlone and Aoife Hannon on the day.

This was a keenly contested contest throughout with Lismore worthy winners at the end of the game, but on another day they know things could have been much different as the Cork side were guilty of some poor striking of placed balls over the course of the game, while goalkeeper Tanya Morrissey made some good saves and Shona Curran who captained the side to All-Ireland glory in the 2013-14 season, brought the sliotar out of defence late on in the game when the Cork side were trying with all their might to get something from the game.

Aoife Hannon opened the scoring in this game with a free on four minutes and a minute later Caithriona McGlone doubled the Cathedral Towns lead on the score board.

But Lismore’s lead was a short lived one as the side on the borders of West Cork came roaring back with points from Meabh O’Donovan and Colleen Twomey from a free on six and eight minutes and they took the lead a minute later when Therese McCarthy put the sliotar over the reach of Tanya Morrissey.

Lismore however would be the dominant team for the remainder of the opening half and hit back with a hat trick of points all from frees off the hurley of Aoife Hannon between the 10 and 18 minutes.

Collette Desmond tried her luck for the games opening goal on 20 minutes but she saw her effort tipped round the post by Tanya Morrissey for a ’45 and from the placed ball Coleen Twomey shot wide. The same player shot for goal two minutes later but she could not get past the Lismore net minder who again put the sliotar out for another 45 and this time Coleen Twomey shot wide once more.

Caithriona McGlone edged Lismore further in front on 26 minutes with a point from play and two minutes later, the same player who is always a player to come up with the crucial scores on the big day got inside the Newcestown defence when Grainne Kenneally played in an inch perfect pass and when in such situations there was only one thing on her mind and she made no mistake putting the sliotar past teenager Orla Dinneen in Newcestown goal.

The Cork side would hit the last score of the half, a point from Colleen Twomey just before the break, which left her side trailing 1-6 to 0-4 at the interval.

Newcestown in the second half put a lot of pressure on the Lismore defence. Very early in the half Suzanne Deasy dropped a long range free in around the Lismore goal but the Lismore defence were able to deal with it comfortably and bring the ball out of defence.

Shona Curran extended her sides lead with a point on 33 minutes. Two minutes later Colleen Twomey put a 45 wide, but made up for it 3 minutes later when she put over a free. On 40 minutes she again struck another free but was again off target.

Aoife Hannon edged Lismore further in front on 41 minutes with another free, her fifth of the game before Collette Desmond now on free taking duty put over her first placed ball at the end of the third quarter.

With 9 minutes to go Aoife Hannon again split the Newcestown posts, but it was followed by a period of continued Newcestown pressure,

Ciara O’Sullivan pointed with six minutes to go and three minutes later Collette Desmond again found the range with a placed ball.

Suzanne Deasy had an effort on the hour mark taken off the line by Shona Curran and a minute later the same Newcestown player shot wide from a placed ball.

Three minutes into stoppage time Aoife Hannon ensured that victory would be Lismore’s when she pointed from a free and while the Tipperary official found further time to add on, try as they might Newcestown were unable to breach the Lismore defence and even with the last play of the afternoon they were unable to get past Tanya Morrissey who made an excellent save.

Lismore: Tanya Morrissey; Sarah Coughlan, Shauna Prendergast, Ellen Curran; Aoife Houlihan, Shauna Kiernan, Marie Russell; Shona Curran, Sharon Williams; Ruth Geoghegan, Grainne Kenneally, Nicola Morrissey; Johanna Houlihan, Caitriona McGlone, Aoife Hannon. Sub: Emma Power for Johanna Houlihan (54).

Scorers: Aoife Hannon 0-7 (7f), Caithriona McGlone 1-2, Shona Curran 0-1.

Newcestown: Orla Dinneen; Mary McSweeney, Rose Desmond, Aisling O’Donovan; Maeve Lynch, Suzanne Deasy, Alison Crowley; Zerica Griffen, Evelyn Crowley; Maria Kenneally, Therese McCarthy, Meabh O’Donovan; Ciara O’Sullivan, Colleen Twomey, Collette Desmond. Subs: Amy Murray for Maria Kenneally (HT), Hilda O’Mahony for Therese McCarthy (51), Keelin Barrett for Alison Crowley (56), Emma Murray for Colleen Twomey (65).

Scorers: Colleen Twomey 0-3 (2F), Collette Desmond 0-2 (1F), Meabh O’Donovan, Therese McCarthy, Ciara O’Sullivan 0-1 each.

Referee: T.P O’Sullivan (Tipperary)