Waterford Senior Ladies narrowly lose to Cork

Waterford senior ladies opened their campaign with a six point defeat to All Ireland senior champions Cork with a very gritty and determined performance in Fermoy on Saturday last. Waterford were first out of the blocks but recorded two wides in the first two minutes before Orla Finn pointed a free for the Rebelettes in the 3rd minute. Waterford then took over and put three points on the board courtesy of captain Sinead Ryan in the 8^th minute, Aileen Wall in the 10^th and Maria Delahunty in the 12^th minute. This good work was undone in the 16^th minute when a Waterford attack broke down and a speculative shot by Cork centre forward Áine O Sullivan deceived Waterford goalie Katie Hannon and ended up in the back of the net. Two minutes later O Sullivan extended Cork’s advantage to two points with a well-taken point. Refusing to lie down Waterford rallied and a point from Maria Delahunty followed by one from Michelle Ryan levelled matters in the 23^rd minute. Cork roared back with two four unanswered points, two frees from Orla Finn and two excellent score from play by Midleton’s Orlagh Farmer left the Cork team in front at half time on the score-line Cork 1-6 Waterford 0-5.

Waterford opened the second half with a flourish and it took a timely interception by Briege Corkery to prevent a Maria Delahunty goal in the 5^th minute which would surely have driven the Déise girls on.Orla Finn kicked two more frees for the Cork girls to stretch the lead to six but credit the Waterford girls they never gave up and two points from centre forward Maria Delahunty narrowed the gap to four with nine minutes remaining. Cork closed out the game with two final points by their top-scorer Áine O Sullivan but Waterford had two final efforts on goal both of which were narrowly blazed wide which on another day could just as easily have rattled the net.

Waterford who were without injured trio Louise Ryan, Nicola Fennell and Caoimhe Mc Grath were competitive throughout the game and great defensive work ensured that Cork had to fight for every one of their scores. With a little more composure in front of goals the many chances created could have been converted into scores, Waterford kicked a total of fourteen wides and certainly had the All Ireland senior champions and LIDL Division 1 winners worried for long periods of the game. Next up for the Déise is a match v Kerry at the end of June.

WATERFORD: K Hannon; M Dunford, M McGrath, L Wall; A Mullaney, M Wall, H Power; E Murray, G Kenneally; R Tobin, M Ryan(0-2), K Murray; M Delahunty(0-3), S Ryan(0-1), A Wall(0-1).

Subs: L McGregor for Tobin (36), C Hurley for S Ryan (49), L  Devine for M Ryan (52), S Dunphy for McGregor (53).

CORK: M O’Brien; M Ambrose, B Stack, E Meaney; V Foley, D O’Reilly, R Phelan; A Walsh, B Corkery; R Buckley, Á O’Sullivan(1-3), O Farmer(0-2); R Ní Bhuachalla, H Looney, O Finn(0-5,4f).

Subs: A Hutchings for Ambrose (27), N Cotter for Buckley (h.t.), E Farmer for Ní Bhuachalla (47), S Kelly for O Farmer (57), Á Hayes for Phelan (60).

 

County under 16 finals

We have now reached the finals stages in the under 16 championship after many exciting group games and the pairings are as follows. In the A final Gaultier meet last year’s champions Stradbally. The B final consists of the All Western pairing of Na Déise and Ballyduff. East meets West in the C final when Erin’s Own take on Ballysaggart while in the D final St Anne’s meet Old Parish. With the exception of the B final which will have been played by publication date, all the other finals will take place in Bohadoon on Sunday morning next.