Waterford Ladies Footballers in League Final.

On Saturday next Waterford Ladies footballers make the trek to Parnell Park to take on Sligo in the final of the Tesco Homegrown Division 3 league and so hope to emulate their Camogie and Hurling counterparts in annexing League titles. Waterford to date have been very impressive winning all their group games and disposing of Roscommon in clinical fashion in the semi final in Nenagh two weeks ago. Waterford and Sligo met already in the league in February in Fraher Field and Waterford ran out convincing winners on a scoreline of Waterford 5-13 to Sligo's 0-5.On this scoreline Waterford appear to hold all the aces but in that fixture Waterford only led by five points at half time but a scoring blitz in the first ten minutes zapped the Sligo confidence and Waterford went on to record a fine victory. Sligo possess many fine footballers and in Noelle Gormley they have an excellent goalie and Gráinne Carty, Katie Walsh and Stephanie O Reilly are well able to take their scores. It is also worth noting that Sligo have go undefeated since that Waterford game and had a notable victory over a fancied Leitrim team in the semi final.

The Waterford team have been playing a wonderful game of possession football, working the ball out of defence, creating overlaps and finishing with deadly accuracy. There is a good mixture of youth and experience in the squad and the whole panel of players are working well with a very healthy competition for places. The back line powered by Karen and Michelle Mc Grath are very strong and in Linda Wall, Megan Dunford, Katie Murray and Elaine Power they possess players who are always looking to go forward and set up attacks. The Ryan sisters Michelle and Sinead are pivotal in attack with Sinead racking up some very impressive score lines in recent matches. Aileen Wall is always very dangerous in and around the goal and the likes of Maria Delahunty and Aoife Murray have an eye for the goal also.

While Waterford seem to have the upper hand it must be noted that Sligo defeated Waterford by six points in last year's campaign and pushed eventual Intermediate champions Down all the way in the championship. Waterford reached this stage of the league last year and went down after a gallant effort to Armagh. The memory of that loss will no doubt spur Waterford on to complete the job and the management team led by Pat Sullivan will have the girls well prepared for Saturday's encounter. Hopefully league victories are like buses, you don't see one for ages and suddenly three come along in a row!!  Waterford should have too much power for Sligo and with a little luck and no small amount of skill and determination Linda Wall should be bringing a third league cup back to the Déise next Saturday. Throw in, in Parnell Park is at 12:15 with Jonathan Murphy in charge of proceedings.

Under 14's effort at Munster A glory falls short

Waterford under 14 girls team came up short in their effort to win the Munster A championship for the first time since 1998 when on Saturday last they were beaten by a much stronger Cork team in Castletownroche in testing weather conditions. The girls now play Tipperary in the B final which is due to be played on Thursday night next May 7th at a venue to be confirmed. While the girls are disappointed to lose the A final they are a very resilient and dedicated group of players and Ciara Dunphy and her management team will have them well primed for the final against a very good Tipperary team.

 

Minors march on in the Munster Championship

Our minor ladies team had a convincing win against Clare on Wednesday night last in Dromtarriffe Co. Cork in the first round of the Munster championship. From the outset the girls were on top and one of the highlights of the night was the sharp shooting of the forwards where Ciara Hurley top scored with two goals and five points. The girls now meet Limerick in the Munster Semi Final at a Waterford venue on May 12th

Under 16 Munster Final

Not to be outdone our Under 16 panel have also qualified for a Munster Final and will play Tipperary on Sunday next May 10th at a venue to be confirmed. This will be a tough clash as both teams have recorded wins over Limerick and Clare and will be very close.

Deise Day at Punchestown

A sincere thank you, to all who made Deise Day such a wonderful success. Despite the weather it was a fantastic occasion and all who attended were very complimentary of the excellent standard of organisation that went into making the day the great success that it was. A well done to all concerned but especially to Edel Curry and Lisa Cronin for the Trojan work that they put in to making the day a wonderful success.

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