South East Derby at Walsh Park

Waterford welcomes National League Champions and near neighbours to Walsh Park on Saturday evening for their second game in this year’s All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship.

Both sides have just one game each played so far in this year’s competition.

Kilkenny began their campaign with a 2-18 to 0-11 win over Limerick at Bruff in the first round of games in the competition, while Waterford having got a bye in round one made the trip to Athenry for their round two game against Galway, where Donal O’Rourke’s side lost out on a 4-12 to 0-8 score line.

That result hardly gave a true reflection on this game as Waterford played much of that game with a numerical disadvantage having had Aoife Landers sent off on seventeenth minute, becoming the second player in a week to be sent off playing against the side from the western province, for a incident involving the same player on both occasions, after the Galway player in both incidents struck the player sent off before any action was taken by the officials.

This will be the second time that the two sides from the South East have clashed this year.

The pair clashed previously in the National League at Conahy where the home side ran out winners on a 1-14 to 0-8, but on that occasion Waterford were short the services of a number of players that normally would be expected to feature in the team from the off, and with a much stronger team likely to start this game, they would be expected to push their near neighbours much harder.

The Kilkenny side which Waterford will face on Saturday afternoon is a vastly experienced one.

Of the eighteen players which played a part in the recent win over Limerick, fifteen were used in the league final win over Cork earlier this year and fourteen were used in last year’s All-Ireland Final defeat to Cork at Croke Park.

The Cats will be able to call on players like Emma Kavanagh in goal, Collette Dormer, Catherine Foley, Michelle Teehan, Claire Phelan, Anne Dalton and Davina Tobin in defence, while the centre field pairing of Meighan Farrell and Denise Gaule will need no introduction to anyone that follows the Camogie scene.

In attack Kilkenny are really strong and will be able to call on the likes of Katie Power, Julie Ann Malone, Shelly Farrell, Anna Farrell, Michelle Quilty, Miriam Walsh, Danielle Morrissey and Edwina Keane will all take some watching by the Waterford defence.

Waterford have made great strides in recent years in the world of Camogie and Donal O’Rourke’s side will be well prepared for this game and will not go into the game fearing Kilkenny with all they have won, but will very much respect them.

At Full strength Waterford will be picking between Brianna O’Regan and Ciara Jackman in goal. Either of these two young keepers would walk onto any side and the Waterford management team will have to decide which gets the nod in this game.

Because of Aoife Landers red card in the game against Galway, it would be expected that Claire Whyte will come into the side for this came in the half back line, while Mairead Power, Iona Heffernan, Sibheal Harney, Shauna Kiernan and Áine Lyng would be expected to fill the other positions in defence.

In the middle of the field Lorraine Bray and Niamh Rockett could well feature. These is a pairing that would put fear into most sides, with both having very impressive years up to now.

In attack Beth Carton is the player that often makes the headlines with her scoring ability, but the side are by no means dependant on her for scores as in the lines of Catriona McGlone, Fiona Morrissey, Deirdre Fahey, Kate McMahon, Annie Fitzgerald, Kaiesha Tobin, Aisling Power, Claire Murphy etc. Waterford has players of some ability.

Kilkenny will go into this game as the favourites to pick up a second win in the competition, but Waterford will not fear them.

It could be argued that Waterford pulled the two longest straws when this year’s championship fixtures were made out playing Galway and Kilkenny in their first two games.

But it could also be argued that Waterford drew the shortest straws as well as after this game they have Limerick and Clare to play, and should Waterford win both of these two latter games, then they should finish with enough points to win a place in the quarter finals of the championship, as three teams from the group of five advance to the knockout stages of the competition, and if Waterford were to do this, they would enter the knockout stages of the competition on a high and who knows what could happen after that.