Lismore win cracking Camogie League Final

Lismore are County Senior League Champions for 2012 in Camogie after the emerged victors with the minimum to spare over Saint Anne’s at Fraher Field recently.

Lismore on the evening were captained by Laura Buckley and it was fitting that after the game she would be presented with the ‘Denny Buckley Memorial Cup’ put up in honour of her father who died a few years previously.

Both sides contained a number of players with some considerable inter county experience suggesting that a close game was going to be on the cards and those present were not to be disappointed by such expectations.

Throughout the hour the two sides were very evenly matched and had the game after an hour ended in stalemate, there would not be too many that would have argued.

At the break the two sides were all square on the scoreboard.

Shona Curran had given Lismore and early lead with a point but it was a short lived lead as Zoe O’Donoghue quickly hit 1-1 to give the East Waterford side a three point lead.

Shauna Kiernan pulled a point back for Lismore but Saint Anne’s soon extended their lead when Zoe O’Donoghue cracked her second goal of the game.

Despite trailing by five points, Lismore failed to throw in the towel and hit back with points from Ruth Geoghegan and Shauna Kiernan.

The later was then to hit a goal for Lismore before Zoe O’Donoghue had St Anne’s back in front. A brace of Aoife Hannon points had Lismore a point in front three minutes from the break, but the sides retired at the interval all square (2-3 to 1-6) after Niamh Rockett pointed for Saint Anne’s.

Lismore came out for the second half like Usain Bolt racing to the line in a 100 metre Olympic final. Ruth Geoghegan hit an early goal. Shauna Curran and Nicola Morrissey then hit points and it was beginning to look good for Lismore with just over a quarter of an hour to play.

However, the tide was to turn and Saint Anne’s soon began to eat into Lismore’s lead. Jennie Simpson landed a brace of frees and a brace of ‘45’s and Zoe O’Donoghue also landed a brace of frees.

Saint Anne’s had gone from five points down with just over a quarter of an hour to play to one up with time almost up.

Credit Lismore however. Just as they had in the first half after Saint Anne’s hit two goals, the Heritage Town side refused to throw in the towel and it paid off.

Shona Curran found the range with a free with just seconds of the hour to play and two minutes into added time their never say die attitude paid fruition when Nicola Morrissey struck gold as her side ran out 2-10 to 2-9 winners.

Quarter Final teams could be known this weekend

Three of the 12 clubs taking part in this years County Senior Football Championship are through to the quarter finals are known. After this weekends round of games, at least another two or three should be known, and if the two clubs that currently occupy the bottom placing in each of the groups were to loose, then all eight teams to contest the quarter finals of the championship will be known ahead of the final round of games in the league section of the championship the following weekend.

Games will take place at Fraher Field and Walsh Park from Friday evening to Sunday Evening and because for the competing clubs there is so much to play for, it could be expected that the numbers attending games could increase somewhat on what we have seen in the three previous rounds of games.

Rathgormack and Ardmore get the weekends action under way on Friday evening at Fraher Field. Both sides are currently in places that would be good enough to contest the quarter finals of the championship in September.

Both clubs are going well this year and both will go into this game expecting to win which would secure their place in their quarter final, but there can only be one winner.

Rathgormack have put together some good underage teams in recent years at under 16, minor and under 21 levels, and these teams have some very good footballers and get the nod to record another win in this game.

Two games take place at both Walsh Park and Fraher Field on Saturday evening. Gaultier and Ballinacourty clash in the first game and will be followed by the meeting of Saint Saviours and The Nire.

On paper, there can only be one winner in both games. Ballinacourty and The Nire should collect wins at the Keane’s Road venue, but things don’t always work out as we expect and both Gaultier and Saint Saviours are more than capable of pulling off a result that few can envisage ahead of the game.

In Fraher Field Dungarvan take on Kilrossanty and An Rinn take on Clashmore.

Dungarvan since coming up from the Intermediate ranks are finding the going tough. They are a duel senior club and to juggle both codes is not an easy one. Kilrossanty are starting to show signs that they could return to bye-gone days and its only a matter of times that silver-ware making its way to the Lemybrien area on a regular basis could not be too far in the distance.

In the second game the top two in the group clash. Both are unbeaten so something has to give. Both sides are through to the quarter finals of the championship so which ever was to loose this game wont be overly disappointed. The winner of this game will top the group and will get what’s perceived as an easier draw in the quarter finals so expect both teams to go for this game from the off.

In the first game, Kilrossanty should prove too strong for Dungarvan and in the second game, Clashmore get a tentative vote to beat An Rinn.

The final game of the weekend sees Brickeys take on Stradbally.

Of the six games to be played this weekend, this is the one that I am least looking forward to seeing. Stradbally are seldom if ever involved in a classic game and are often happy to win a game by a single point, often in a low scoring game.

Brickeys this year have been very disappointing. They were once one of the stronger football clubs in the county, but this is no longer the way. They have been involved in a number of relegation scrapes in recent years, and this year it would appear they will possibly end up in another such battle.

The style of football that both sides play while it can be effective, can be very boring to watch and will not attract many neutral supporters to their games.

Stradbally have some very experienced players, many with more than their fair share of County Senior Football medals, and there experience should stand for something in this game

 Senior Football Championship Group One

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Against	Diff	Points
The Nire	3	3	0	0	56	21	35	6
Rathgormack	3	2	1	0	34	28	6	5
Ardmore	3	2	0	1	39	39	0	4
Ballinacourty	3	1	0	2	33	36	-3	2
Saint Saviours	3	0	1	2	20	38	-18	1
Gaultier	3	0	0	3	27	47	-20	0

Senior Football Championship Group Two

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Against	Diff	Points
Clashmore	3	3	0	0	41	25	16	6
An Rinn	3	3	0	0	45	34	11	6
Stradbally	3	2	0	1	42	27	15	4
Kilrossanty	3	1	0	2	34	33	1	2
Brickeys	3	0	0	3	23	39	-16	0
Dungarvan	3	0	0	3	31	58	-27	0

Deise's Greatest

Ask someone to name Waterford’s best hurler of all time and you are sure to get a wide range of answers.

Many will go for one of the stars of recent years. The names of John Mullane, Paul Flynn, Ken McGrath and Tony Browne will feature prominently.

Press those you are asking to name someone other than the top three or four players of recent times and some more names will be mentioned, names such as Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh, Dan Shanahan, Stephen Molumphy, Fergal Hartley and Stephen Frampton.

Take those out of the room that were born pre-1980 and ask them the same question and some new names will come from their lips.

The men of the 1957-1963 era will get mentioned. Men like Frankie Walsh, the last man to lift the Liam McCarthy Cup in Croke Park, John Barron, Tom Cheasty, Austin Flynn, Phil Grimes, John Kiely and Mick Flannery, the hold of 25 county final winning medals (15 in senior hurling) will all be mentioned.

Before and after these greats wearing the Waterford shirt, others who are counted amongst Waterford’s greatest also come to mind. Men like John Galvin, Jim Greene and Pat McGrath in the 1970’s and 1980’s and before the men of 57-63 we had the likes of Erin’s Own Jim and Charlie Ware as well as Mount Sion’s John Keane who wore the white and blue for Waterford in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

To pick one over the other as Waterford’s greatest hurler would be difficult thing to do. Each decade brings a different type of player, and if a person was to try and get people to agree on one name, there is way that an agreement could be reached.

However, when it comes to the ladies game, things are a little easier, and there would not be too many arguments as to who is possibly Waterford’s greatest Camogie player.

Yes, down the years Waterford have had some fine players, but can many if any compare with Gaultier’s Trish Jackman in what she has achieved.

The recently turned twenty-one year old has all ready achieved so much in her carer, and while the playing career of a female competing at the top level of sport is often shorter than that of a man, but if Trish does not add to what she has already achieved, it would surely be considered a major surprize.

The Gaultier Club Player might be best known within the county and beyond for winning a fourth All-Ireland Poc Fada in the Cooley Mountains as recent as last Monday, this honour in fact is just one of many that she had achieved.

Last September she helped Waterford win the All-Ireland Junior Final after a number of near misses in the previous years, and with Waterford in the semi finals of this years Intermediate Championship later this month when they play Galway, If Waterford were not to make a return journey to G.A.A. Headquarters next month, many would be disappointed.

All-Star Awards, National League, Under 16 ‘B’ and Ashbourne Cup medals are also amongst Trish’s collection as are Kilmacud Crokes 7’s and an All-Ireland Feile Skills Title.

Trish Jackman competing in the All-Ireland Poc Fada competition for the seventh year in a row, winning it four times in a row, if we did not know it previously has surely confirmed herself to be Waterford’s greatest Camogie player of all time.