Offaly 1-9 Waterford 4-22

Report by John Gavin

Noelle Kennedy has known for some time that this year is going to be a challenging year for her as manager of the Offaly senior camogie team. 

When the fixtures for the Very Ireland League were released no doubt she would have hoped for an easier opening game.  Waterford are a team on the rise and proved this last year when they reached the All Ireland Semi Finals whereas Offaly are a team in transition with Saturday's starting team showing five members of the 2022 team that won the All Ireland B Final.  With that in mind Offaly were always going to be up against it as they took to the field against Waterford in St Brendan's Park on Saturday.

Waterford were on the attack from the throw in and despite two early wides, they had three points on the board before Offaly got their opening point when a quickly taken free from Siobhan Flannery resulted in Sarah Harding hitting over. The Deise hit back with a point from Beth Carton before Flannery pointed for Offaly. 

The opening goal of the game came after just 10 minutes when Roisin Kirwan fired past Leah Gallagher in the Offaly goals.  The home side breathed a sigh of relief seconds later when another Waterford goal was ruled out by referee Justin Heffernan but the relief proved to be short lived as the teams traded points before Carton hit her team's second goal of the day after 14 minutes to leave her team leading 2-5 to 0-3.

Offaly had no answer to Waterford and the game was effectively over as a contest after 24 minutes when Abbey Flynn hit her team's third goal.  Carton pointed a free for the visitors before Lisa Gorman found the net for Offaly after Mairead Teehan burst through the Waterford defence to give the small crowd of Offaly fans something to smile about.  

Waterford were relentless in the second half and while Noelle Kennedy managed to give some of her subs some game time the Deise women added 1-14 to their tally.

When asked for her thoughts afterwards, Kennedy said that the game was always going to be a difficult start to the League for her team given that they are going through a re-building phase, with six debutants on the starting team and several more on the panel. She added that the full panel are training hard and working well together.  Despite the scoreline she was did find positives from the game and went on to say that she felt her team did some great things and that they will reset, take the learnings and positives from the game and look forward to playing Down next Saturday.  

The game against Down is one that Offaly will feel they need to get something from if they are to avoid a relegation battle in this year's league.  

Teams:

Offaly: Leah Gallagher, Hannah Feenane, Orlagh Phelan, Siobhán Killeen, Sarah Walsh, Gráinne Dolan, Rebecca Ryan, Labhaoise Glynn, Sarah Harding, Caoimhe Darcy, Siobhan Flannery, Louise Mannion, Lisa Gorman, Rachel Brennan, Mairéad Teehan.

Subs:  Kaitylyn Kennedy for Rebecca Ryan (48 mins), Aishling Feeney for Siobhan Killeen (50 mins), Becky Bryant for Labhaoise Glynn (54 mins), Aoife McLoughlin for Caoimhe Darcy 60 mins

Waterford: Brianna O'Regan, Vikki Faulkner, Iona Heffernan, Kate Lynch, Keeley Corbett Barry, Orla Hickey, Mairead Power, Lorraine Bray, Clara Griffin, Niamh Rockett, Beth Carton, Mairead O'Brien, Abby Flynn, Roisin Kirwan, Rachael Walsh

Scorers - Offaly:  Lisa Gorman 1-0, Sarah Harding 0-3, Mairead Teehan 0-3 (1 free), Siobhan Flannery 0-3 (1 free, 1 '45). Waterford:  Beth Carton 2-14 (7 frees), Abby Flynn 1-2, Roisin Kirwan 1-2, Annie Fitzgerald 0-1, Anne Corcoran 0-1, Niamh Rockett 0-1, Lorraine Bray 0-1.

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