By Kevin Egan
Waterford may have made the dream start to the Centra National Camogie League with back-to-back wins over last year’s All-Ireland finalists, but manager Michael Boland is still taking their 0-12 to 1-5 victory over Galway at Kenny Park on Saturday “with a pinch of salt”.
“It doesn’t change anything, we’re only four weeks into the season so a lot of teams don’t have a lot done, but we’ll take a lot of confidence from it all the same,” was his post-match verdict in Athenry.
“What we’re trying to do in training is starting to come in, it’s just not there for the full 60 minutes. A lot of it is because we haven’t been on fields due to the weather in the winter, but that’ll take shape over the next three or four weeks.
“Galway were away on holidays so you have to take that with a pinch of salt,” he added, referring to the All-Ireland champions’ difficulties in getting home from their trip to the United States.
Player of the match, Eimear O’Neill being interviewed after the game, while in the main picture (above), Sarah Lacey attempts to evade the attentions of Galway duo, Katie Manning (4) and Réitseal Kelly (Photos: INPHO/Bryan Keane)
Heavy snowstorms in the New York area delayed Galway’s return to Ireland, and their manager Cathal Murray was far from regretful, even if he accepted that it left his team on the back foot for this game.
“We wouldn’t swap New York for anything, we enjoyed ourselves out there,” was his description of the upheaval. “But we just got caught up in a snowstorm and a lot of the girls weren’t back until 5 o’clock on Thursday morning, and you can’t expect to beat a team like Waterford if that’s your preparation.”
In addition, Murray rotated his panel, continuing his bid to try and freshen up the squad and share around the playing minutes as he has done in this competition ever since taking over the reins.
“Ten players that started today were U23 last year, we had only six that started last year’s All-Ireland final. Laura Freaney, Ava Crowe, Aoibhe Carr all made their league debut today,” he said.
In Division 1B, Clare are now the only unbeaten side after they picked up a 3-8 to 2-8 win over Limerick at Cappamore, though it looked for long stages of the second half as if things were going against the Banner County.
They were 2-3 to 0-6 ahead at half-time after playing into the breeze but goals from Laura Southern and Lizanna Boylan actually put Limerick two up going into the closing minutes. A Lorna McNamara free and a Jennifer Daly point levelled the game and then a combination of the new rules and the audacity of McNamara combined to create the match-winning goal.
“We won a line ball deep in our own half and being able to play it quickly (from the hand) meant we could work the ball through Caoimhe Carmody and Clare Hehir, into Lorna,” was manager, Eugene Foudy’s description of the final score in McNamara’s 2-5 tally. “We were screaming at her to put the ball over the bar, but that’s not her style, so she just lobbed the ball over the goalie.”
It’s a victory that puts last year’s All-Ireland quarter-finalists in the driving seat for a league final slot, and Foudy believes it will have championship implications too.
“We meet Limerick again in the championship and it’s an advantage to us to have won this game and seen what worked well for us and what we need to improve on. It’ll be a feather in our cap and will give the girls confidence when we meet them again.”
Two sides that are well used to frequent meetings are Dublin and Wexford, and Dublin put the disappointment of their loss to Down behind them with a 2-9 to 0-10 win in Bunclody that puts them back in the mix to scrape into the top two.
“Down outworked us all over the pitch and they fully deserved their win,” admitted Dubs boss Bill McCormack of that previous reverse.
“We were lucky [today] to have a few returning soldiers for different reasons coming back into the team, the likes of Aisling Maher, Aisling O’Neill, it’s good to have them and get them a bit of game time as well.”
Alannah McNulty showing her intent on giving Niamh Mallon absolutely no room to breath at Kenny Park on Saturday
Claire Gannon picked up the Player of the Match accolade for her role in the half-back line, and she said that having their main attacking weapons back in the fold made life much easier for everyone else in the team.
“Wexford are tough opponents, they play us so much they were always going to fight us to the very end. One they got that point at the start of the second half, that was the wake-up call for us all to push on and pick up the intensity there. Ash (Maher) getting the goal just really lifted us all and then I think we dominated the last 15 minutes.
“For the first half we were probably playing around with it a bit too much, for the second half we just had to get the ball forward. Every time we got the ball up there to them, they’d win a free or a score”.
Dublin’s next game will be in a fortnight against Offaly, who will also go into that fixture with confidence after 1-9 from Clodagh Leahy helped them to beat Down by 3-12 to 0-10 in Birr.
