Camogie farce as home tie moved to Waterford
CORK WEXFORD
WEXFORD SLUMPED to a heavy defeat in their third outing in Division 2 of the Littlewoods National Camogie League in Carriganore on Sunday.
This was supposed to be the Slaneysiders’ first home game of the season, having made a pair of lengthy trips to the northern half of Antrim and Down in their previous two outings.
However, in bizarre circumstances, that advantage was removed from Wexford by the game’s governing body.
Wexford were happy with the arrangement to have the game played in Coolgreany, where it was originally set.
Cork, on the other hand, didn’t want to travel to the northern-most tip of the county and, comically, the Camogie Association bent over backwards to accommodate the Leesiders.
They took a break from tweeting about Dancing With The Stars to snatch home advantage away from Wexford and dump the game in W.I.T.
In retaliation, the Wexford County Camogie Board refused to collect a gate or produce a programme, both requirements of hosts.
If it wasn’t already obvious, it’s now more clear than ever which county runs the game out of Croke Park.
Wexford are looked on as a soft touch up in headquarters, so hitting the association in the pocket is probably the best course of action to start getting some respect back.
As the score suggests, there really wasn’t anything positive to talk about on the field, with Cork’s Maeve McCarthy carried off after picking up a knee injury just seconds after throw-in.
It didn’t deter the Rebelettes as they raced into a 1-8 to nil lead after 20 minutes on the back of five Keeva McCarthy points and a Katelyn Hickey major. For ten minutes until first-half added-time Wexford looked a little better and probed.
Still, they rarely looked like scoring from play and only got on the board when Chloe Cashe drilled a line-drive dead-ball from just inside the ‘45 right into the roof of Catríona Collins’ net.
The Glynn-Barntown clubwoman tapped over a free after a chop on Emma Doyle to make it 1-8 to 1-1.
Two McCarthy points left it 1-10 to 1-1 at the interval. Wexford rarely got inside the Cork ‘45 after the break.
It was 4-16 to 1-1 at the end of the third quarter after Finola Neville, Rachel O’Shea and Katelyn Hickey goaled.
The ignimony was completed in the final ten minutes when Catríona Collins vacated net-minding duties, went up full-forward and scored Cork’s fifth goal.
Despite the lopsided defeat, there’s a reasonable chance that two wins from their final two games will see Wexford into a league semi-final spot.
First up is a trip to Westmeath on Saturday week, and if the Slaneysiders can snatch an unlikely victory in that one they will host Carlow - maybe even inside this county - in their final outing on April 1 with some hope of progression.
Wexford: Liza Bates; Emma O’Connor, Leanne Foley, Aoife McCrea; Katie O’Connor, Chloe Cashe (1-1 frees), Derbhla Doyle; Sorcha Foley, Laura Dempsey; Victoria Burke, Orla Molloy, Shauna Kelly; Michelle Kehoe, Emma Doyle, Laura Kelly. Subs. - Emma Kiely for Bates (31), Nancy Dunphy for E. O’Connor (31).
Cork: Catríona Collins (1-0); Leah Weste, Sarah Harrington, Niamh O’Callaghan; Katie McCarthy, Maeve Lynch, Lauren Callanan; Aoife Kavanagh, Sarah Buckley; Maeve McCarthy, Katelyn Hickey (2-3), Finola Neville (1-4, 0-1 ‘45); Caroline Sugrue (0-2), Rebecca Keane, Keeva McCarthy (0-7, 5 frees). Subs. - Keelagh Cullinane for M. McCarthy, inj. (3), Rachel O’Shea (1-4) for Keane (31), Cliona Healy (0-1) for Hickey (43), Saoirse McCarthy (0-1) for Sugrue (43), Emer Hurley for Keeva McCarthy (45).
Referee: Gavin Donegan (Dublin).