Galway reach intermediate camogie final

Galway came out on top of a hard-fought encounter with Waterford to win the All-Ireland intermediate camogie semi-final by 1-14 to 0-13.

Derry await in the decider and the westerners will take heart from the steely determination they showed to see off a stubborn Waterford challenge.

Dee Burke, the excellent Emma Kilkelly and Rachel Monaghan were amongst the scorers as Galway streaked into a four-point lead after 19 minutes, with Trish Jackman and Niamh Rockett responding for Waterford.

Jackman was operating in the unusual position of full-forward and had quite an impact, finishing with nine points (three from play).

Three of those scores came in the final ten minutes of the opening half, and with Rockett and Ruth Geoghegan also on the mark, they were in command.

Their momentum was halted just before half time by a fortuitous goal from Kilkelly though and that was absolutely critical. Galway went in at half time leading by 1-6 to 0-7 and never ceded the advantage again.

They stretched their lead to five points within ten minutes of the restart but Waterford showed plenty of character to bring it back to two points, with Jackman raising four white flags.

Nicola Morrissey might have put them in front but her low shot was saved by Róisín Callanan and responded very impressively to that scare, with three late scores from Rebecca Hennelly, Kilkelly and Sinéad Keane to cement their spot at Croke Park on August 16.

Galway had a number of impressive performers in Paula Kenny, Clodagh McGrath, Keane, Aoife Lynskey and Orla Curtin but Kilkelly was the undoubted star of the show.

Jackman led the Waterford resistance, while Ruth Geoghegan, Jenny Simpson and Mairéad Murphy were others to figure prominently.