Senior Club Camogie Championship Starts This Weekend With Some Cracking Contests In Store

Last Saturday afternoon at Pairc Ui Chaoimh there was heartbreak for the Waterford Senior Camogie team when they lost out to Tipperary in the first of this year’s All-Ireland quarter finals.

However there is little time for those that formed Donal O’Rourke’s panel to rest on their laurels as this weekend most of the panel are back in action, not this time with the county but with their respective club sides.

Regular readers of what I have to say on here will no doubt be fed up hearing how strong I think Waterford Camogie is right now. OK, we as a county might be that little bit behind the likes of Kilkenny, Cork and Galway, but we are moving in the right direction and I make no apologies for pointing this out.

If the inter county scene in Waterford is strong, so do is the club scene. In the last number of years we have seen Lismore and Gailltir dominate on the senior stage, with both winning county senior titles and Munster Intermediate championships, with the Heritage Town side even adding an All-Ireland Club title to their Roll of Honour in recent years.

This year’s senior championship proves to be one of the best in a long number of years. No longer can we say with any degree of certainty that it will be a straight dog fight between one or two sides. This year Six, yes Six teams will compete in the senior championship and any one of the six could win the title, and which ever does come out on top will have every right to say that they are champions and have the right to represent the county in the Munster Club Championship in the weeks around the late Autumn and early Winter months.

Between Saturday evening and Tuesday next all six teams will have played in this year Championship.

Two games are down to be decided on Saturday evening and the third game is to be played on Tuesday evening.

Champions from 2016 Gailltir open their campaign with a difficult assignment against De La Salle. The two sides met in the final of the League earlier this year at Ferrybank and on that occasion it was the girls from the Barony that came out on top, but they will need no telling that the same will happen this time around.

Both sides have some outstanding players in their ranks. Gailltir will be looking to the likes of Ciara Jackman in goal, Kate Lynch, Áine Lyng, Annie, Aoife and Shauna Fitzgerald, Róisín Flood, Leah Sheridan, Eilish Cullinane and Clodagh Carroll for guidance here.

De La Salle are only playing in the adult grades with a short few years and already have achieved so much, but they have yet to sample success in the senior grade be it at League or Championship level, but it is only a matter of time before they do.

Like Gailltir they have their stars in their set up. Brianna O’Regan and Beth Carton will be the best known players in their ranks but the likes of Lucy Hogan, Taylor Healy, Niamh Murphy, Colette Hogan and Abby Flynn are equally as fine players.

Have no doubt about it, if there is a game to be seen in Waterford in any grade or in any sport this could be it. Throw in at the Gaultier G.A.A. Grounds near Dunmore East on Saturday evening is at 7pm for a game that is forever too close to call at this stage.

The second game down for decision on Saturday evening is the meeting of Saint Anne’s and Cappoquin in Dunhill.

Just like the Senior Final of the league already mentioned above, these two sides met in the Intermediate League Final at Ballinameela on the same evening as the Senior League Final in Ferrybank.

That game ended prematurely when Róisín Kirwan picked up a serious Injury which did not allow her to be removed from the field until professional medical expertise arrived by which time the game was stopped some time and people were leaving the ground.

On the night it looked as if the Mid County side were the better of the two sides and were in control when the game was halted.

Both sides have their quota of present and former inter county players and just like the first game mentioned down for decision this weekend, this one could well go to the wire.

Saint Anne’s will be looking to the likes of Megan Foran who helped Waterford win a Munster Minor Final last week, Labhaoise Dunbar, Claire Whyte, Saoirse Boner, Pauline Cunningham, Bronwyn Grace, Claire Murphy, Mairead Murphy, Aleisha McDonald, Becky Kavanagh and of course of one the best players this year on the National scene Niamh Rockett in this one.

The Corner-Stone ladies also have their stars. Lorraine Bray is another player who really impressed on the inter county scene this year, while they also have the likes of Tracey Kiely, Róisín Cahillane, Jenny McCarthy, Róisín Uniacke, Aisling Power, Carole McCarthy, Jess Glavin, Nicole Landers etc in the black and red shirt.

This game also has a 7pm start on Saturday evening and if there is a winner in this game, most neutrals will be fancying Saint Anne’s to start with a win in a competition where every point collected on the league table could prove vital.

The final game of the weekend see’s reining champions Lismore take on An Rinn in Lismore on Tuesday evening. (It might be advisable to check with Lismore as to what venue they will be using).

The girls from the Heritage town in the last number of years have proven to be an excellent side and there is nothing to suggest that they won’t be challenging again in 2018.

They are without Gráinne Kenneally this year after she picked up a serious injury some weeks back which will keep her out of the game for some time and her loss is a big one for the side, but they have coped without her in the past and will do so again in the future as they have some excellent players in their set up, the likes of Tanya Morrissey, Sarah Coughlan, Shauna Prendergast, Ellen and Shone Curran, Aoife Houlihan, Shauna Kiernan, Marie Russell, Sharon Williams, Nicola Morrissey, Johanna Houlihan, Ruth Geoghegan and of course Caithriona McGlone.

An Rinn currently have three players who are first choice players on the Waterford senior team in Aoife Landers, Fiona Morrissey and Deirdre Fahy and they will be absolute vital for their sides chances in this one.

But they had also some very good players in last year’s championship, the likes of Sarah Ní Mhuiriosa, Siobhan Ní Mhuirithe, Fiona Ní Bhriain, Cadhla and Lia Nic Craith and Áine Ní Chrotaigh who if they are involved this year will also be asked to pull out all the stops.

Lismore will go into this game as the only side this week that gamblers will say they are sure of collecting the points on offer, and they get the nod here to win, but if ever there is a best time to play the reigning champions it’s in the first game of the competition and that will give An Rinn confidence going into this game.