Waterford rocked by Vikki Falconer injury admits camogie manager Sean Power
DEFEATED DÉISE: Waterford manager Sean Power before the game. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
Waterford Camogie manager Sean Power admits losing Vikki Falconer in their early stages of their heavy All-Ireland final loss to Cork affected his players greatly.
Power confirmed the corner-back had been given the task of limiting the threat of Rebels forward Amy O’Connor, who would go on to score 3-7 – including a hat-trick inside two minutes at the beginning of the second half – following Falconer’s withdrawal.
The extent of her injury is not yet known as the Déise await the final results from her scan, but it is feared she may have suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury.
“Yeah, it wasn’t ideal. It was a disaster actually for Vikki to go off so early in the game,” Power told WLR FM shortly after full time.
“In terms of the player's safety, that’s my paramount importance even more so than a victory or a loss.
“We have assessed her there and waiting on a scan, but it looks to be quite serious for her knee, but we are waiting on a scan.
“It may be a cruciate, but we don’t know but not an ideal way to start an All-Ireland final.
“We talked about organising matchups and things like that and the reality of it was Vikki had a very specific job to do and a specific player for Cork but after 90 seconds she’s gone.
“We had to readjust, we had back-up plans and things like that but nevertheless to lose one of your marquee backs, one of our players of the year so far, big hit early in the game when you need to get on a few balls and that didn’t happen for us as well.
“That was the starting point of something that was going to be a tough day all round.
“Vikki was going to take Amy O’Connor today. I say no more. Amy O’Connor is quality like, she is very, very good.
“She has an incredible turn of pace, great touch, very good hurler, very skilful and we identified someone in Waterford that could embrace that challenge and we lose her after 90 seconds. It’s a tough one.”
Cork would go on to win the final on a score-line of 5-13 to 0-9 at Croke Park on Sunday and while Power praised the performance of his opponents, he added that his own side’s decision-making let them down on the day.
“I thought our decision making in the first half wasn’t great. We made a few bad choices on the field,” he continued.
“Statistically we showed we left 1-5 behind us in the first half, to go in down by nine points at half time and you miss eight is a lot.
“That’s not including the penalty, now sometimes a penalty goes in sometimes it goes over the bar, no blame attributed to that, these things happen.
“But in the first half we did create a few opportunities we just did not take them, and we were nowhere near taking them.
“Second half starts, and the first three scores are Cork goals, that’s game over lads. Simple as that. It’s a tough pill to swallow. The players and the management are heartbroken, that’s sport. We have to dust ourselves off, have a look at where it went wrong but it went badly wrong.
“In the cold light of day when you analyse it, we will have to see where it went wrong. Credit to Cork for the victory, I thought they were brilliant.
“On reflection this is their third year in a final, losing the previous two… you hear stories that Matthew Twomey is under wicked pressure down there, this was the year to win it.
“They learned from last year without a doubt – they lost by a point – and they showed it today, they showed how good they are.
“If we are to take solace from anything, in personnel terms there’s not an incredibly different 15 that played each other in the Munster Championship, and we turned them over that day.
“We didn’t hit a ball right today and that’s what you get against Cork, but I don’t think we are that far behind them.
“It was just one of those bad, bad days.”
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