'Back to the drawing board but a monkey off the back' says Waterford’s Orla Hickey
RESET: Waterford are back to the drawing board following their win over Clare. Pic: John Sheridan/Sportsfile
Nobody thought ten points was a fair reflection of the action when Liz Dempsey blew the final whistle on Saturday’s rip-roaring Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior quarter-final between Waterford and Clare.
The scoreboard read 2-20 to 2-10 in Waterford’s favour and the Déise certainly had a number of other goal scoring chances, not least a first-half penalty from Beth Carton saved spectacularly by Rachael Daly.
Annie Fitzgerald’s major in injury time at the end of the first half, and then the 55th minute goal from the inspirational Niamh Rockett, who finished with 1-11, were key scores in the context of the game after two sensational goals by the always dangerous Clare captain, Áine O’Loughlin had rocked the Déise on their heels.
From the start, Clare played at a pace and with ferocious industry that seemed to catch the Suirsiders unawares. They clipped some neat points, got the hooks and blocks in, hunted in packs from the forwards backwards.
Flynn’s goal gave Waterford a 1-11 to 2-5 interval lead but Clare kept tabs on them and had plenty of goal chances themselves, some last-ditch defending, smart goalkeeping by Brianna O’Regan and astute utilisation of the law of the jungle holding the Banner girls at bay.
Rockett’s goal after a 1-2 with sub Maggie Gostl put the affair to bed but defender Orla Hickey was in no doubt that more will be needed if the 2023 All-Ireland finalists are to return to the big stage.
“We certainly made it hard for ourselves I can tell you,” said Hickey. “We’ll have to go back to the drawing board on Tuesday when we go back training and start from scratch again.” Manager, Mick Boland agreed and revealed that there were some “harsh words” during the break.
“They dug it out is the best way to say it,” Boland declared. “Parts of it were scrappy. Some of it was very good. We created goal chances in the early part of the game, missed a penalty and then all of a sudden conceded a goal and a second goal with two high balls into the square.
“We got the goal just before half time, deserved that bit of luck after what happened before that. The second half was a bit more controlled. We controlled the ball and kept the scoreboard ticking over.
“Let’s be very honest, that will win no semi-final. The performance has to go up a lot higher than that. Maybe the quarter final was a good route to take because it gave us that opportunity to play up here, it gives the girls a small bit more confidence. In fairness to Clare, they played very well today. That was one of their best performances of the year I’d say.”
“Annie’s goal was very important. It probably came at the right time. There was an awful lot of harsh words (at half-time). They said it themselves. These girls set high standards. They knew that the performance wasn’t where it should have been. Hopefully, in the next two to three weeks, that will all come together.”
The reference to winning in Croke Park was notable, as it was Waterford’s first triumph at HQ since the 2015 All-Ireland intermediate final.
“I think it was a monkey on our back for a while,” Hickey stated. “We played in Croke Park a few times and we lost. That monkey is off our back now. We go back to the training ground Tuesday and focus on what we need to do. There’s a few things today that we just didn’t get right. We will get it right, it just takes time. We’ll go back to the drawing board now and we’ll get to it.”
John Carmody was justifiably proud of the Clare players and after hailing O’Loughlin, was looking to the future.
“Mixed emotions,” Carmody conceded initially. “I’m proud of the girls. Fantastic battling display, some quality scores. I felt ten points didn’t do ourselves justice in the end. We were right there half-way through the second half.
“Not blaming the referee but I thought Waterford got a couple of vital decisions around that time. I thought Áine O’Loughlin came in, got whipped down and got her pass away to Andrea O’Keeffe, who was hooked but we felt Áine was fouled for a penalty and that would have put us a point ahead at the time. I just felt they got one or two soft frees that pushed it out to five points and the game was gone on us.
“But I’m really proud of the girls. Fantastic display. Huge workrate. People forget, it’s a very, very young team. The next step is to try get back to this stage again and close the gap further and maybe even eliminate it.
“The goal before half-time was a big score for Waterford. They showed their experience. It was a well worked goal, they took it well but it was a key score in the game, if we had gone in level..
“But we were pleased at half-time. We felt we had every opportunity in the second half and half-way through the second half we were still there in the game. And that’s that bit of experience that I talk about. I thought Niamh Rockett stormed into the game at that stage, Lorraine Bray from the middle of the field drove forward and got two brilliant scores. They were key scores at that point.
“Hats off to Waterford. They’re further down the road than us. They are real contenders for the All-Ireland and best wishes to the in the semi-final.
“I was delighted for Áine. Her form hadn’t been great. She picked up a back injury a few weeks ago. I rang her during the week and I says,, ‘Áine, forget about form, Saturday is the day for form,’ and by God did she perform today. She was outstanding.
“We need more Áine O’Loughlins and Clare Hehirs but they’re there. We’ve had a few girls out injured that will come back into the fold, a few travelling the world. There’s a panel of 35 players there, about 20 of them under 21 years of age and the key for Clare camogie is to keep that group together, to grow and take this on further and make sure we’re back here again in a year’s time.” For Boland, there is much to work on, but a realisation too that small details make big differences at elite level and that his charges aren’t far off at all.
“The last two games we’ve come up against two teams that have played a plus one and we’re finding it difficult to break them down at times. We’re creating some goal chances but we’re finding it difficult when they put a lot of bodies around the middle. They seem to turn over a bit of ball when they put bodies in that area. We’re going have to work a lot harder to create space in that area.
“You can have plenty in the tank but it’s about bringing it out. It doesn’t matter what you have in the tank, if you don’t bring it to the field you don’t win matches. But the thing I will say is Clare were very hard to play against today because they committed so many bodies around that area. We found it very hard to play against them and it’s something we have to really work on hard over the next two or three weeks because any team we’re going to play now are gonna filter players back the field. Their half-forwards are gonna be back and they’re gonna squeeze up. We’re going to have to find a way to work that ball through the hands and create them little triangles of space to get them scores.
“I really don’t think we’re miles away. I think we’re a lot closer than we think. It’s just to fine-tune the small little things. If you go back to the first half, the two or three goal chances. They’re very fine margins.
“And if I’m saying anything more than anything else it’s that every time you go out or every performance you put in, sometimes you have to grind a result out and that was one of those results that we ground it out.”
: N Rockett 1-11 (0-7fs, 0-1 45); A Fitzgerald 1-2; A Flynn 0-3; L Bray, B Carton 0-2 each
: A O’Loughlin 2-0; C Hehir 0-3(fs); A O’Keeffe, J Daly, Z Spillane 0-2 each; C Cahill 0-1
: B O’Regan, R Walsh, K Lynch, V Falconer, B Bowdren, K Corbett Barry, O Hickey. A McNulty, L Bray, E O’Neill, B Carton, A Flynn, N Rockett, M O’Brien, A Fitzgerald.
: M Gostl for O’Neill (44); T Power for Hickey (57); M Comerford for Flynn (59); I Heffernan for Corbett Barry (60); A O’Sullivan for O’Brien (60+2)
: R Daly, S O’Keeffe, C Hehir, S Daly, L Daly, A Walsh, D Griffin, N Mulqueen, A Andersen, A O’Keeffe, C Cahill, J Daly, R Begley, A O’Loughlin, Z Spillane.
: C Carmody for Spillane (39); E Casey for Andersen (42); G Carmody for A O’Keeffe (57); C Grogan for S Daly, A Cooney for J Daly (58); M Scanlon for Hehir blood (60)
: Liz Dempsey (Kilkenny)
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