Waterford ladies make it six in a row

Waterford intermediate ladies make it six in a row

In a week when a certain five in a row in Croke Park  was on everybody’s lips, Waterford Intermediate ladies football team went one step further by winning the Munster championship for a sixth consecutive year. The girls faced up to the challenge of Limerick in the final conscious of the fact that it had been one major struggle to get the better of the Treatysiders in the round robin series of games played in June. The girls travelled to Rathmore in Co Kerry for the re-match knowing that it would take a major effort to win the title and that the attitude and level of determination had to be right from the word go.

Waterford opened in a whirlwind fashion and with the first attack Michelle Ryan opened the account with a pointed free. Hannah Landers made it two with a well worked effort in the 3^rd minute and following good interplay between Róisín Tobin and Elaine Power, Michelle Ryan kicked her second and Waterford’s third point in the 4^th minute. Limerick came back with a bang, a long through ball seemed to catch the defence unaware and Limerick centre forward had no hesitation in putting the ball in the back of the Waterford net to tie up the game. It could have been worse for the Déise a minute later as a defensive blunder almost resulted in another Limerick major but a free out ensured that the danger was lifted.

For the next 13 minutes from the 6^th to the 19^th minute, Waterford put on a display of football that was indeed first class. Mairead Wall pointed in the 6^th minute and almost immediately Liz Devine was on the end of an excellent pass from Linda Wall to slot over another point. Almost from the kick out a slick inter passing movement started and finished by Elaine Power ended with the Tramore midfielder kicking a great point to stretch Waterford’s lead to three points. Aileen wall got in on the act one minute later with a wonderful point and one of the scores of the day followed in the 10^th minute when Michelle Ryan kicked a wonderful point from 35 yards out for Waterford’s eighth point. A high ball into the Waterford defence caused panic and from the resulting 45 metre kick Aimee Jordan got down well to bring off a great save. In the 12^th minute Hannah Landers added to the Waterford score with a wonderful point from the left wing and Michelle Ryan kicked her fourth point from a free in the 13^th minute.

At this stage the Limerick management made a couple of substitutions in order to stem the tide with Cloda Kirby replacing Siobhán Moloney and Stephanie Carroll replacing Leanne Garvey at centre back. Almost immediately the Waterford scoring machine was in full throttle again when a sublime pass from Aileen Wall to her sister Linda resulted in Linda getting yet another point for Waterford. Michelle Ryan added to the growing tally in the 14^th minute with yet another point and Liz Devine scored another in the 16^th minute having been set up by Mary Foley who intercepted a dangerous Limerick attack and set up the Brickey Rangers forward with a long pass out of defence. In the 17^th minute Michelle Ryan raised yet another white flag to leave Waterford’s tally at fourteen and repeated the act two minutes later to put twelve points between the teams.

From there to half time there was a noticeable improvement in the Limerick play with Niamh Richardson, Marie Curtin (two) and Dympna O Brien all scoring points for Limerick, to leave the half time score Waterford 0-15 Limerick 1-4.Limerick drew first blood in the second half with a Marie Curtin pointed free but Elaine Power cancelled this out with a point in the 7^th minute and followed up with a surging run and another point a minute later. Hannah Landers was on the end of a wonderful pass from Róisín Tobin a minute later and finished the ball to the Limerick net to put 12 points between the teams again and effectively end the game as a contest. Great play from Aileen Wall led to a pass to her Ballymacarbry club mate Michelle Ryan who duly put it over the bar to stretch the lead and Michelle repeated the feat in the 15^th minute for her ninth point of the day.

Manager Pat O Brien rang the changes at this stage and introduced Gráinne Kenneally for Róisín Tobin and Shauna Dunphy for Hannah Landers and following another intricate passing movement Linda Wall scored yet another point. The icing was put on the cake in the 20^th minute when Elaine Power thundered a shot to the net after the Limerick keeper had made a fine save to put 15 points between the teams. Another raft of substitutes was introduced with Liz Devine, Aileen wall and Michelle McGrath called ashore for a well earned rest and being replaced by Caoimhe McGrath, Margaret Revins and Megan O Connor respectively. The game petered out with in fact the last six scores coming from a resolute Limerick team who never gave up trying Marie Curtin kicked four points and Claire O Riordan and Stephanie Carroll chipped in with one each to leave the final score Waterford 2-20 Limerick 1-11.

Michelle Ryan accepted the cup to the delight of the Deise supporters and midfielder Elaine Power was a very worthy recipient of the player of the match award. Waterford now move forward to an All Ireland quarter final and limerick enter in the second round of the qualifiers. Pat O Brien was well pleased after the match and was delighted with the result and especially with the first 20 minutes when 15 scoring chances resulted in 15 points but he admitted that there is still a lot of work to be done in order to achieve All Ireland success. A word of congratulations must go to the Munster Council for their wonderful organisation and to the Rathmore club for the fantastic facilities that made Munster Final day a very special one

Waterford lined out as follows: Aimee Jordan, Nora Dunphy, Gráinne Enright, Mary Foley, Louise Ryan, Karen McGrath, Róisín Tobin, Michelle McGrath, Elaine Power(1-3), Linda Wall (0-2), Mairead Wall(0-1) ,Aileen Wall(0-1), Hannah Landers (1-2) Michelle Ryan (0-9), and Liz Devine(0-2).

Subs Used: Shauna Dunphy for Hannah Landers, Margaret Revins for Aileen Wall, Grainne Kenneally for Róisín Tobin, Megan O Connor for Michelle McGrath, Caoimhe McGrath for Liz Devine.