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The Irish Sun
a day ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
History made by Waterford while there's huge wins for Cork, Limerick and Galway as end of Camogie groups approaches
GOALS from Amy O'Connor, Katrina Mackey and Clodagh Finn helped CORK secure a comprehensive away win over TIPPERARY. The All-Ireland champions continue to cast a long shadow over the rest of the Group 1 field, with the visitors scoring all three goals in the first ten minutes of Saturday's round-robin clash at The Ragg. 2 Katrina Mackey is no stranger to the back of the net 2 Great result for Galway and Caoimhe Kelly That set them up for a comfortable afternoon, with O'Connor going on to score 1-13, 1-5 of it from play, in a 3-21 to 1-9 hammering. Player of the match O'Connor said: 'It was a very good performance. We started well and set our stall out early. 'There will be a couple of things for us to work on, particularly in terms of how we set up for the puckouts and our efficiency in the second half, but overall we can be happy. 'Our full-forward line at the moment, you have seven or eight players and any of the seven or eight could play. Read more on Camogie "When people are coming on and performing as well as Kate Wall and Ciara O'Sullivan did there, it's great to see Sorcha McCartan back, everyone's under pressure all the time. If you don't perform, you won't play.' In Owenbeg, meanwhile, GALWAY hammered DERRY 4-25 to 0-5 in a Group 2 game thanks to goals from Mairéad Dillon, Aoife Donohue, Sabine Rabbitte and Caoimhe Kelly. The Tribes' manager Cathal Murray said: 'We had a really good spread of scorers. We had a good performance, and we're very happy to have two wins out of two and be out to a good start in the group. "We got a lot out of the game, we've a two-week break now before the Kilkenny game which is shaping up to be a massive match after their result. They'll be fired up and eager to bounce back.' Most read in GAA Hurling The departure of manager Jerry Wallace at the end of the Very League and the subsequent postponement of their Munster final against Cork in the lead-up to the historic Special Congress decision to allow camogie players the choice between wearing shorts or skorts had WATERFORD in the spotlight without ever pucking a ball. On Saturday, however, they were the story of the second weekend in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championship for all the right reasons. RTE pundit Joe Canning urges GAA to make huge change for Leinster hurling final as fans 'totally agree' Thanks to a strong finish, the Déise recorded their first-ever Championship win over KILKENNY — and their first win over them in ten attempts in any competition since returning to senior a decade ago — on a 0-17 to 0-10 scoreline in front of a large crowd at Nowlan Park. Waterford's Niamh Rockett, who scored nine points, told 'We were bullied against Kilkenny in the league. They were standing over us, really loud and really going for it from the get-go.' Mick Boland, who stepped in to replace Wallace, said: 'Any management changeover in mid-season is difficult. But the thing about it is, most of the management were in there before, so there was continuity, there was no real change. 'After Jerry stepped back, the girls pushed us to take over, and it was seamless. We targeted this match at the start of the year, and the result was unbelievable, the performance was very good. "There were patches there in the second half where we lost our way, but we pulled it back and got the tide going our way again. 'We missed a lot of opportunities, our conversion rate, especially when it came to goals, was poor. We probably left four goals behind us and on bigger days you won't win those matches.' HEATING UP Another local derby will be the focus of the fixture list in round three, with CLARE to host LIMERICK in Group 1. After Clare had beaten WEXFORD in the first round, Limerick followed up with a 1-10 to 0-10 win against the Models in Rathkeale on Saturday. While that result leaves Wexford's hopes of securing a knockout place hanging by a thread, the winner of next Saturday's fixture in Ennis will be all but assured of a quarter-final berth at least. Limerick manager Joe Quaid said: 'Next weekend is basically a preliminary quarter-final. 'Whoever wins goes through so the stakes don't get much higher. We suffered a terrible defeat last week against Cork but maybe we took our eye off the ball as well. 'We were never going to beat Cork but since the draw, this is the game we've been focusing on for the past six months. 'We knew we had to win, we didn't care if we won ugly or great. The work-rate out of those girls was just phenomenal, talk about having each other's backs. 'Ciara O'Riordan got a block in late on with her back, they died for each other on the pitch and they are a great bunch. 'We've 15 new girls on the panel this year and for them to achieve that is unreal. 'They train every bit as hard and give as much commitment as the Limerick senior hurlers and a day like today, in front of their supporters, is just fantastic. They got to show the people of Limerick what kind of characters they are.'
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Mairead O'Brien warns Kilkenny that Waterford ‘running faster than ever' after skorts row ahead of All-Ireland clash
MAIRÉAD O'BRIEN has warned Kilkenny that Waterford are ready to hit the ground running — and they have been running faster than ever before. Today, Michael Boland's Suirsiders get their Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championship Group 2 campaign underway against the Cats, who already have a win under their belt after thumping Derry last weekend. 2 Dual star Mairead O'Brien warned Kilkenny that Waterford are working harder than ever Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 Kilkenny players return to the changing room before the Leinster Senior Camogie final against Wexford Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile The action throws in at UPMC Nowlan Park at 12.30pm and O'Brien cannot wait to don her shorts and try to take down the Cats. The game's postponement — after the players insisted they would be lining out in shorts — was a regrettable plotline but ultimately led to the alteration of the rule on playing kit by a 98 per cent majority at a Special Congress, allowing players to choose shorts or skorts. And O'Brien, 22, said: 'Yeah, we were delighted. We got the news at training and we were just about to do our running bloc. I swear we've never run so fast all year. Read More on Camogie 'It is a massive step. There was an issue with comfort levels but the players were listened to and the results were pretty significant. And any step forward for keeping younger girls involved is great. It was frustrating to have the Munster final postponed 16 hours before when all the preparations had been made to optimise our performance. We had been training well and had a good win over Tipperary to get there. 'I suppose as a group we're just driving it forward and just focusing on the Championship now. And I think the management team we have currently is phenomenal. 'The commitment they've shown is as much as the girls'. We're all just kind of working together and pushing forward as a group and trying to get the best out of each other.' The postponing of the Munster final and the fact they had a bye for the first week of the Championship means Waterford are perhaps more rested up than they would like to be. Most read in GAA Hurling But given she hit the Cats for a brace of goals on the way to defeat in the league in March, Tommy Shefflin and Co will definitely be forewarned about O'Brien's threat — and even if they were not, Caoimhe Keher Murtagh would inform them. Cats star Keher Murtagh was a colleague of O'Brien as UL won the Ashbourne Cup for a second season on the trot, and they were both in the third level Team of the Year. Young Kerry LGFA fan steals the show with sign during All-Ireland final win over Galway But whereas Keher Murtagh's Rower-Inistioge are a storied, traditional The camogie club was only established in 2011 to field an Under-12 team but O'Brien has been at the core of everything that has been good about them since, highlighted by her tally of 1-4 as they defeated Tipperary outfit Fethard by 2-5 to 0-10 in the Munster junior club final last November. She explained: 'The first adult team was put out in 2017, we won the junior in 2019 and then obviously last year we had a good run of luck. 'As a group, our main aim was to get back to the county final and try and win it. We probably bottled a lot of disappointment from the year previous. But to be fair, we used it to our advantage and went back training that bit earlier and worked really hard through the year. 'Once we got out of the county, we were definitely in bonus territory, and unknown territory. 'The lads involved were great when it came to the big days. They never kind of picked up on the occasion too much. Their main point is just to go out and enjoy it and work really hard. And that's what happened.' 'UNBELIEVABLE' The smile breaks out just thinking about Modeligo's odyssey and what it meant in the small country parish. She added: 'It was just unbelievable. We had a few good celebrations. We just enjoyed it. When we were enjoying it, we were just playing well. The whole community was behind us. 'And in the Munster final, they were definitely a 16th player. We were struggling for scores in the second half and had phenomenal support that got us over the line.' With that club success behind her, and experience of playing in one All-Ireland final already at a young age when the Déise went down to Cork in 2023, O'Brien is at the top of her game at the moment, alongside celebrated camogie county stars such as Beth Carton, Niamh Rockett, Lorraine Bray and Brianna O'Regan. But football has also been part of her story — a former dual operator, O'Brien stepped away from the big-ball squad this year as she was completing her final year in physiotherapy at UL. Everything right now is zoned in on the next couple of months with Waterford camogie — and today's date with the Cats ensures that it is no soft launch. She said: 'They beat us in the league but we would be looking to improve our performance from then. We got off to a good start but in the second half we didn't maintain it. 'I don't think we've ever actually beaten them in Championship so hopefully we will put that right this time.'
