Waterford senior
ladies open their Munster championship challenge with a tough encounter on Saturday next 13th May with a home
game in Fraher Field. This will be the third time that the teams will meet in
Senior Football since Waterford came back to the Senior ranks two years ago. In
both encounters last season Waterford were defeated by Kerry but the Déise
girls gave a good account of themselves in both matches. Neither team set the
world alight in the LIDL National League at the start of the season and failed
to qualify for the semi-finals of their respective divisions.
Kerry have a very
good side with many well-known players in their ranks, Aislinn Desmond at full
back is a resolute defender and will be well aided by Aisling Leonard, in
mid-field Aisling O Connell is expected to make a return after injury and up
front Sarah Houlihan, Amanda Brosnahan and Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh will pose
problems for the Waterford defence.
Waterford have a
number of injury doubts also but hopefully these will have cleared up by the
weekend. Katie Hannon is playing very well in goal and Mairéad Wall, Caoimhe McGrath
and Michelle McGrath are performing consistently well in the back line. Karen
McGrath at mid-field along with Róisín Tobin, Nicola Fennell, Maria Delahunty,
Michelle Ryan and the Murray triplets in attack all have the potential on the
day to cause Kerry problems. Kerry will go into the match as strong favourites
but Waterford have the ability and know-how to perform well on the day and
claim a major scalp and get their Munster campaign up and running.
Waterford under 14 Ladies come up short against
Limerick
Waterford ladies
football under 14 team came up short in the Munster Under 14 final against
Limerick on Sunday last. Played in glorious sunshine in Mallow GAA complex,
Waterford were slow out of the blocks and indeed were 5 points down after only
7 minutes on the score line Limerick 1-2 Waterford 0-0. It took Waterford all
of 22 minutes to register their first score, a point from midfielder Áine O
Neill. Left half back and captain Ella O Neill added to Waterford’s tally a
minute later when she soloed up the field and kicked a fine point. Waterford
had levelled matters in the next three minutes with points from Aoife Brazil
and Áine O Neill but Limerick roared back into action with a brace of points to
leave the half time score Limerick 1-4 Waterford 0-4.
Waterford started
the second half brightly with four unanswered points courtesy of Hayley Phelan
(2), Mairéad O Brien and Aoife Brazil to leave Waterford a point to the good
with 10 minutes remaining. Sarah O Brien kicked a point for Limerick to leave
it all square. Waterford went ahead with a goal from Mairéad O Brien with five
minutes to go. Waterford stretched their lead with a point in the 28th
minute but Limerick broke Waterford’s hearts with a goal and a point of their
own before the referee blew the final whistle. Most people, including the
Limerick supporters had the result as a draw but the referee had it down as a
one point win for Limerick. The final score line Limerick 2-7 Waterford
1-9.This was a bitter pill for Waterford to swallow but what is in the
referee’s notebook at the end of the match not what is on the scoreboard is
what matters. This was a controversial ending to a great game of football
between two great teams who played with heart and courage all through.
It’s a pity that one
of the main talking points about this game concerned not the performance of the
players but that of the referee in getting a major decision wrong when he
didn’t correctly implement the sin-bin rule having given a yellow card to a
Limerick player and not sending her to the line until five or six minutes later when it was drawn to his
attention by a Munster Council official that the rule was in operation for
under 14 players.
