By Daire Walsh

Thanks to an historic success at Cappoquin Logistics Fraher Field in Dungarvan last October, a unique honour has come the way of Waterford’s Emma Murray in 2025.

Having previously won the competition for an astonishing 42 years in succession, Ballymacarbry finally lost their stranglehold on the Waterford senior ladies football championship in 2024. After regularly coming up short to them in showpiece deciders over the course of the preceding decade, Comeragh Rangers became just the fifth side to claim the top-tier trophy in the Deise County with a magnificent 5-3 to 1-6 success over Ballymac.

While her sister Katie grabbed the headlines with a four-goal haul, Murray produced an excellent performance at midfield in this game for the victorious Comeragh. As the role is usually handed to someone from the senior county champions, no player from the Rathgormack-based club had ever been appointed as captain of the Waterford team until this year.

Yet that breakthrough triumph in 2024 opened the door for a Comeragh footballer to lead the Deise into battle and it was Murray who ultimately assumed the key leadership position within the inter-county set-up.

“I’m the first from Comeragh Rangers to captain Waterford. The captain is generally picked from the winning team of the senior county final. It’s an honour to represent Comeragh Rangers at that level, to know there are plenty from Comeragh Rangers that played county in the past,” Murray acknowledged.

“Great leaders that would have made great captains, but they just didn’t get the chance because we were unlucky not to get that senior title a bit earlier. It’s great to represent Comeragh Rangers when I’m captain of Waterford.”

Exactly six months on from that county final win over Ballymac, Murray was back in Cappoquin Logistics Fraher Field last Friday week (April 11) for a special event.

On a big day for football in the county, the Deise captain was amongst a group of over 200 players and volunteers to celebrate a major partnership for women’s sport.

In a groundbreaking three-sponsorship agreement, the Waterford LGFA and the Waterford Dairy Farmers have announced a partnership that will see a significant investment in the future of women’s football in the county. There is set to be a primary focus within this sponsorship on supporting the senior team, but there will also be a contribution to the development of Waterford's underage Player Development Pathway programmes.

“We’re very grateful for their support and we’re looking forward to working with them over the next number of years. We were without a sponsor last year, so we’re very grateful to have them coming on board. They’re going to be a huge part of our success moving forward. We’re excited to see the positive impact that they have on Waterford ladies football,” Murray said of the new partnership with Waterford Dairy Farmers.

“Farmers play a huge role in communities all over our county. They’re involved in clubs and organisations at all levels. Mainly just at local clubs before this. This initiative will aim to develop these ties even further. They’re very community focused, it’s great to be working with them.”

Although there are important things happening away from the field of play, Waterford have been making steady progress within the white lines of a football pitch thus far in 2025. Having followed up an opening round win over Kildare with narrow defeats to Kerry and Meath as well as a draw against Dublin, the Deise finished off their campaign in Lidl National Football League Division 1 with consecutive victories over Tyrone, Armagh and Mayo.

The Munster outfit were at risk of being dragged into a relegation battle before facing Tyrone, but a superb 6-15 to 0-6 success in Aghyaran at the beginning of March greatly improved their prospects. In fact, courtesy of consecutive 10-point triumphs against Armagh (1-22 to 1-12) and Mayo (2-13 to 1-6), Waterford claimed third spot in the final top-tier standings.

“The big win we had with Tyrone made the group believe what we’re capable of when we put the heads down and go at it. We put up a fine score that day. Since then, we had a big win against Armagh. We had a good performance that day,” Murray said ahead of being named in the Division 1 team of the Lidl National Football Leagues.

“Then the Mayo match, we knew they were coming down fighting relegation. We’ve been there ourselves before, so we knew they were going to be up for it. They were going to come down fighting, so we knew that we had to put in a good performance there just to finish the league off on a win.”

From the very start of this year’s NFL, Murray was joined on the Waterford panel by her sisters Katie and Cora. Another sibling Aoife (who is a triplet of Emma and Katie) was initially set for an extended sabbatical in 2025, but she has made a return to the fold in recent weeks. 

“Aoife was planning on taking a break, but we convinced her to come back. She’s back in there since the weekend of the Tyrone game. She’s back training with us now as well. The four of us are still on it.”

Ten years on from winning a TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship with their native county, Emma, Katie and Aoife will be hoping to leave a lasting impression on the higher grade of the inter-county game in the coming months.

They will certainly be aiming to at least match their run to the quarter-final stage of the TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship in 2024, but there is the small matter of a Munster campaign to deal with before the Brendan Martin Cup gets up and running. Along with current All-Ireland SFC winners Kerry – who regained the Lidl NFL Division 1 title in Croke Park last weekend – Waterford will also face Cork and Tipperary in what promises to be a compelling provincial championship.

“The group is going to take confidence from our league campaign. We’re well aware as well that there is plenty that needs to be improved on and tweaked for Munster. We’re going to take confidence from that and hopefully be competitive in Munster and see how we get on,” Murray added.

Tweet

Most Read Stories