Heartache In Ballyagran For Déise Ladies

There was agony for the Waterford Senior Camogie Team at Ballyagran on Sunday as they drew with Limerick in their last game in this year’s National League.

Seven days earlier if you told anyone associated with the team or who has an interest in the game that Waterford would earn a draw with Limerick, the hand would be eaten off you, as it would be considered good enough for Donal O’Rourke’s side to earn a place in the semi finals for the first time, but the Treaty Counties somewhat surprise win over a previously unbeaten Kilkenny in the penultimate round of games meant that nothing other than a win was going to be good enough for Waterford yesterday afternoon, as the two sides went into the game level on points with the home side having a better score difference over Waterford.

While Waterford for now will be disappointed to miss out on a place in the knockout stages in the league, when it comes to the bigger picture, Waterford will and should take great heart from what was achieved in the league.

Waterford were one of the last counties to put together their management team for 2018 which meant that they were that little bit behind other sides returning to training. But it has to be pointed out and should never be forgotten, once the team got back to training the commitment shown was nothing short of what anyone could have asked. It must also be pointed out that for much of the league the Waterford management team were not at full strength as a number of players were involved with Lismore in the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championship up till early February.

No doubt going forward, a great deal will have been learned from this year’s league, and the side now will be looking forward to competing in the Munster Championship where they will be up against a fancied Cork side at the W.I.T. Arena in Carriganore on April 21.

After this Waterford will be involved in the All-Ireland Championship where Waterford are involved in a very difficult group starting with an away game with Galway, but with three places from the group available for a knockout spot in the competition, everyone involved will be confident that they can claim one of these places.

The Waterford management team made three changes to the side which beat Dublin at the W.I.T. Arena a week earlier.

Brianna O’Regan came into goal for Ciara Jackman after the pair had rotated the position in the five games played in the competition. Shauna Kiernan came into middle of the field with Sibheal Harney moving from the middle of the field against Dublin to the corner back position in place of Jenny McCarthy as missed out, and Kaeisha Tobin who missed the Dublin game due to illness replaced fellow Dungarvan Club player Orla Hickey in attack.

It was the home side that got off to a great start in this game as the dangerous Niamh Mulcahy finished past Brianna O’Regan of her left after she collected a long pass in from in front of the dugouts with only three minutes played.

Limerick at the break were 1-3 to 0-5 in front with all but one of their scores coming off the stick of Niamh Mulcahy, all coming after Rebecca Delee opened the scoring for the day.

Despite Limerick’s great start to the game, Waterford knew they had a task to do on the day and they worked hard to achieve it as Beth Carton put over four first half scores and Kaiesha Tobin landed one, with the young Dungarvan lady extremely unlucky not to have struck for goal, and would have but for the exploits of Laura O’Neill in the Limerick goal who got just enough on the sliotar to turn it over her crossbar.

Points from Mary O’Callaghan and Niamh Mulcahy stretched the home sides lead to three within four minutes of the restart.

 Anyone supporting the experienced home side expecting their heroines to push on from here would be left disappointed.

Aisling Power and Beth Carton as well as Niamh Mulcahy traded scores for their respective sides and when Kaeisha Tobin finished to the net with barely five minutes to go it was looking as if the dream was on for Waterford who were 1-8 to 1-7 in front.

Caoimhe Costello levelled matters once more soon after the Dungarvan player had given Waterford the lead for the only time, and the hosts went back in front on 59 minutes when Niamh Mulcahy brought her total for the afternoon to 1-6.

Waterford were not going to give up and were rewarded when Beth Carton hit her seventh of the afternoon, but time would run out on referee Cathal Egan’s timepiece before Waterford could hit another score, one that would have given them the chance to contest the Division One semi finals for the first time. 

WATERFORD: Brianna O’Regan; Mairead Power, Iona Heffernan, Sibheal Harney; Aoife Landers, Áine Lyng, Claire Whyte; Lorraine Bray, Shauna Kiernan; Niamh Rockett, Deirdre Fahy, Fiona Morrissey; Anne Fitzgerald, Beth Carton, Kaeisha Tobin. Subs: Aisling Power for Morrissey (36), Marie Russell for Whyte (53).

Scorers: Beth Carton 0-7 (0-4 frees, 0-1 ‘45), Kaeisha Tobin 1-1, Aisling Power 0-1.

LIMERICK: Laura O’Neill; Marion O’Connell, Sinead McNamara, Marian Quaid; Caoimhe Costelloe, Judith Mulcahy, Lisa Scanlon; Sarah Carey, Karen O’Leary; Rebecca Delee, Mary O’Callaghan, Deborah Murphy; Megan O’Mara, Aisling Scanlon, Niamh Mulcahy.  Subs: Caoimhe Lyons for O’Mara (41), Dearbhla Egan for Scanlon (51), Muireann Creamer for O’Callaghan (57).

SCORERS: Niamh Mulcahy 1-6 (0-4 frees), Mary O’Callaghan, Rebecca Delee, Caoimhe Costello 0-1 each.

REFEREE: Cathal Egan (Cork)