Under Strength Waterford Test Strong Kilkenny Side

            Waterford’s excellent start to this year’s National Camogie League came to an end of Sunday afternoon when they lost out to a strong Kilkenny side at Conahy.  

            New Waterford Manager Donal O’Rourke has named a large panel for this year’s league with the programme for the opening game against Meath at the WIT Arena listing 34 players, of which all but eight of them at this stage have got some game time and of this number that have yet to play, three are from the Lismore Club who were involved in the Club Championship up to recently so were not considered for selection.

            For the two games before this game the side was rotated to allow as many players as possible to get game time under their belts and for this game there was again some rotation, with nine of the side which earned a draw against Clare at the WIT Arena starting this game.

The home side fielded a strong starting fifteen for this game with ten of those starting here also starting the championship game between the same two counties in last year’s championship at Walsh Park, while Waterford for this game, with Waterford fielding nine of the side that were beaten 2-15 to 0-6.

Kilkenny went into this game with two wins from their first two games and were confident that they would make that three in a row and therefore as good as book their place in the knockout stages of the competition.

The home side got off to a great start in this game as they went 1-4 to 0-1 in front after just 11 minutes.

Many sides falling behind so early to such strong opposition would have thrown in the towel straight away expecting the worst, but this side which had a number of players out with illness are not like many teams and they worked hard and although they lost out at the end of the day, they make Kilkenny fight hard for every score they got.

Miriam Walsh and Julie Ann Malone hit early scores for the home side to which Beth Carton responded to with her first of the afternoon on five minutes, the home side followed up with scores from Anne Dalton and another from Julie Ann Malone before Grace O’Donnell hit the game’s only goal on eleven minutes which put her side 1-4 to 0-1 in front.

  The Kilkenny side that Waterford played on Sunday afternoon was one that has its quota of All-Ireland, National League and Ashbourne Cup medals and on thirteen minutes one player with all three of the above mentioned medals Katie Power got on the score sheet on thirteen minutes.

Waterford enjoyed a purple patch after this as Beth Carton hit three scores on the bounce to narrow the Kilkenny lead to four, but they managed to extend that before the break when Miriam Walsh got her second of the game, which helped her side to a 1-6 to 0-4 advantage at the break.

The third quarter of this game proved to be evenly balanced as Beth Carton and Denise Gaule swapped scores after which Aoife Doyle and Beth Carton swapped scores which kept the home side in front.

Kilkenny in the closing quarter of this game called on all their experience and added points from Miriam Walsh and Denise Gaule to extend their lead with twelve minutes of the hour still to play.

With the game beginning to slip away from Waterford Saoirse O’Brien, Abbie Dunphy and Sadie Mai Rowe were all handed their league debuts for Waterford in the closing minutes of this game, giving them some valuable experience of playing at this level, something that will stand to them going forward.

In the time that remained Beth Carton and Miriam Walsh swapped scores before Aoife Doyle and Denise Gaule landed scores to edge Kilkenny 1-13 to 0-7 in front with the hour played.

Both sides in stoppage time would score once more. Niamh Rockett pointed for Waterford in the first minute of time added on by the County Cork referee and four minutes later Denise Gaule closed the scoring with her fourth of the afternoon.

The Waterford ladies have a weekend off this coming weekend and will play Dublin at the WIT Arena on February 18 in a must win game for both sides and the side will be appealing for a big support on the day and make up that sixteenth player on the day.

Waterford: Brianna O’Regan; Mairead Power, Iona Heffernan, Jenny McCarthy; Aoife Landers,  Claire Whyte, Shauna Fitzgerald, Lorraine Bray, Sibeal Harney, Orla Hickey, Deirdre Fahy, Niamh Rockett; Aisling Power, Beth Carton, Áine Power. Subs: Clara Griffin for Shauna Fitzgerald, Sadie Mai Rowe for Claire Whyte, Clare Murphy for Áine Power, Abbie Dunphy for Mairead Power, Saoirse O’Brien for Orla Hickey.

Scorers: Beth Carton 0-7 (6F), Niamh Rockett 0-1

Kilkenny: Emma Kavanagh, Jacqui Frisby, Davina Tobin, Catherine Foley, Michelle Teehan, Colette Dormer, Róisín Phelan, Anne Dalton, Claire Phelan, Aoife Doyle, Julie Ann Malone, Katie Power, Jenny Clifford, Grace O'Donnell, Miriam Walsh Subs: Denise Gaule for Jenny Clifford, Michelle Quilty for Grace O'Donnell, Danielle Morrissey for Colette Dormer, Laura Murphy for Jacqui Frisby, Lydia Phelan for Michelle Teehan.

Scorers: Miriam Walsh, Denise Gaule (2F) 0-4 each, Grace O’Donnell 1-0, Julie Ann Malone, Aoife Doyle 0-2 each, Anne Dalton (F), Katie Power 0-1 each.

Referee: Andrew Larkin (Cork)