by Daragh Ó Conchúir

These are heady times for camogie in Waterford and it is evident in the level of support they have been getting for a few years now.

Who will forget the noise at UPMC Nowlan Park in 2023 as the Déise girls recovered from conceding the first goal and three points against Tipperary, to secure a first All-Ireland senior final appearance in 78 years?

WIT has established a storied history in the Ashbourne Cup, the county’s schools have been winning Munster and All-Ireland titles at various grades, the Suirsiders appeared in two consecutive All-Ireland minor finals in 2023-2024, and last November, De La Salle reached the Munster club final for the first time losing to an injury-time goal to St Finbarr’s, who only fell in the All-Ireland final in a replay.

Phenomenal work has been done to spread camogie, to develop a depth of talent and participation, and to grow the support base. This has proven very successful and the next step now is to try to break the glass ceiling of winning a national title at the elite level.

They are an hour and change away from that now, though with All-Ireland champions Galway waiting in the Centra Camogie League Division 1A final on April 12, it will be the most difficult hurdle to clear, as it should be.

They will go into it buoyed, not just by their performances on the pitch and the fact that they beat the Tribeswomen just a few weeks ago, but by the aforementioned support of their own people, as they combine a fundraiser with a Meet and Greet on both sides of the county tomorrow.

With everyone making a donation (see link below) entered in a draw to win prizes that include a holiday voucher, the reaction has been extremely positive already before the Pedal for the Déise Spinathon has even gotten under way.

Groups of players will participate throughout the day in consecutive four-hour stints of spinning and rattling buckets in Waterford city and Dungarvan.

The target is to raise €10,000 for the senior squad to help defray the costs that go with preparing a high performance squad bidding to chase down the standard-bearers and set a new norm of expectation. Waterford’s effervescent goalkeeper, Brianna O’Regan is looking forward to it.

“We’ve great people that are after rowing in with the county board to help Waterford camogie but this is just about trying to get a bit more funding into the group,” says O’Regan. “The spinathon is a good way to do that but also go down and meet the people of Waterford and engage with the public.

“On the city side, it will be in City Square, outside Dunne’s and up in the west it’s in Garvey’s Centra Garage. We’re in groups of six so we’ll have to do a block of four hours. You’ll have two on the bike and the others with the buckets and chatting away to the people, signing autographs or taking photos. We’re looking forward to that, for people to bring their hurleys and jerseys and whatever they want.

“The people of Waterford always come out for us and it’s only growing as the years go on and to get to a Division 1A final is great and hopefully they will come out in numbers and back us on the day.”

It is evident from the strength of the units Mick Boland has sent out that Waterford were intent on hitting the ground running this season. The campaign kicked off with a six-point victory over champions, Cork at Azurri Walsh Park and a unique double was completed a fortnight later when the Galway scalp was claimed. Subsequent victories over Antrim and Kilkenny confirmed their spot in the decider with a game to spare.

While nobody in the camp would have been happy with the 19-point hiding handed out by Tipperary at The Ragg last Saturday, it was an opportunity to provide more opportunities to other players, and the hosts’ need was far greater with the spectre of relegation hanging over them.

O’Regan is pleased with how things have gone.

“At the start of the year, we decided to take each game as it comes but to win a League would be nice and in Waterford, we won’t say no to any final or silverware as well. You’re going out each year to try and get some silverware and to build on each year. Our target was the League at the start of the year. Thankfully we’re after reaching the final now and hopefully we can go that step further.”

The disappointment of the 2023 All-Ireland final against Cork, in which they lost talismanic defender Vikki Falconer to injury after three minutes and never got into the game, has been confined to the past O’Regan insists. They sifted through the debris, took what they needed from it, and then moved on.

“If we were still thinking about something that happened three years ago, something would be very wrong,” one of the country’s premier custodians argues, sensibly.

She is a dozen years on the panel now, a regular among All-Star nominations though surprisingly still to be honoured at the end-of-year bash. Full-length saves, including a very welcome trait of stopping penalties, are a trademark, and so too pointing frees from distance from her own half.

The 28-year-old, who is in her third year of a Special Needs Assistant course that she loves, will surely relish returning to UPMC Nowlan Park in a fortnight’s time, given the memories of that famous, emotive victory over Tipp three years ago.

One of the highlights of that day was the reaction to O’Regan’s pointed free in the second half, not so much from downtown as another galaxy. The Waterford supporters might well have created a new decibel level in those seconds, as the sliotar split the posts and O’Regan sprinted back towards her more regular habitat.

The bubbly De La Salle stopper knows that this will be a different game to the one in the round-robin phase, when Galway were only a couple of days back in the country after being snowbound in New York during the week. Still, Waterford were by the better team on the day.

“You look at the calibre of players Galway have, even on the bench, they’re phenomenal. And their manager as well, Cathal Murray. We’re under no illusions as to the test that we’re gonna come up against again and what they’re gonna bring and hopefully we can match that again.

“You can take things from the last game but obviously they’re gonna come at us with something different. You can expect that for sure, but we can’t wait.”

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