Wicklow battle on
Door open to players after another big defeat in league
TYRONE WICKLOW 6-12 1-1
FOR the last two Sundays, participating in the National League competition has proved to be a largely unrewarding experience for the Wicklow senior camogie team.
Ten days ago, the Garden County suffered a 11-19 to 0-3 drubbing by Offaly in their opening Division Three contest, and for last Sunday afternoon’s second round fixture against Tyrone at Bray Emmets only 12 of the 20 selected players put in an appearance for the management team duo of Kevin Byrne and Ger Redmond.
However, instead of Wicklow having to give a walk-over to the Red Hands, the visiting outfit agreed to play competitive a 12-aside game, instead of a friendly contest, with the winners at the final whistle taking the two points on offer.
Before the start of the 60 minutes, referee Ray Kelly explained that the rules of camogie stipulated that a game could be played once both teams had a minimum of 12 players available to take the field.
And Kevin Byrne added that Tyrone’s gesture was a reciprocal action of an agreement made by Wicklow prior to the previous most recent meeting of the two counties.
‘In last year’s league, Tyrone had only 13 players for a home game against us, and we agreed to play a 13-aside game despite the fact that we had a group of 20 players who travelled,’ he explained.
Asked afterwards if players from some prominent clubs had failed to make themselves for the Wicklow team, Kevin Byrne said: ‘We getting players from all clubs, but we could with do with more alright.
‘However, the minors, a number of whom are involved in the senior set-up, were out yesterday against Louth in the championship and that was a game played in terrible conditions. So a few of them were still suffering from having played in that game.
‘But a few of the minors turned up today and fair dues to them for doing that.
‘However, the minor competition is the main competition that the under-18 players are focussing on this year, but these players will be able to be with us full-time in next year’s competitions.
‘And the minor players will take heart from the fact that they beat Louth by 5-5 to 1-6, and that was a very good win for them in their first game in this year’s minor championship.
‘As well as the minor players who we were missing today, a few girls were working, some are on holidays, and some other girls are finding it hard to commit to both camogie and ladies’ football.
‘But slowly but surely we’re building the process, and we’ll keep plugging away and we won’t turn anybody away from the panel of players.’
Unlike the contest against Tyrone, Wicklow were able to play a full 15-a-side game against Offaly,
‘Fifteen players turned up for the Offaly game, so we had no shortage of players to pick from on that occasion,’ explained Aughrim clubman Byrne.
‘Obviously Offaly won that game comfortably, but Offaly is a very strong team and a lot of their girls could be playing senior (on the county’s first team which competes in Division One of the National League), and the Offaly second team are one of the strongest teams in Division Three this year.’
Asked for his views on the game against Tyrone, Byrne said: ‘Admittedly, Tyrone won well, but despite the final scoreline I thought that our girls battled well and showed no lack of effort.
‘Okay, they took a while to settle into the game and there was a lot of fumbling of the ball.
‘In the first half, we were unlucky to miss a good few scores when we had the wind, with a few balls dropping wide instead of going over the bar.
‘And then in the second half against the wind, despite the fact that we didn’t score, the girls kept plugging away and they never dropped their heads.’
Though playing against the strong wind in the opening half, the visitors took control of the contest from an early stage, and it took them only two minutes to make their initial impression on the scoreboard, Roisin McErlean splitting the posts.
Two additional points were quickly added by the Ulster side, through Orla Coyle and McErlean, from a free, before they raised the first green flag of the contest, when Coyle broke through the Wicklow defence and fired in a rasping shot.
Shortly after this, the home side’s very industrious forward Jessica Maxwell, who saw a lot of the ball, fired in a shot from fully 50 metres which Tyrone goalkeeper Kelley Cuddy did well to prevent entering the net.
And on 24 minutes, the home side’s Aisling Shannon had a fine goal attempt capahly dealt with by Cuddy.
In between those two Wicklow scoring attempts, McErlean supplied Tyrone’s second goal midway through the first half, and the same player and Mary Wilson added a point apiece to put their side 2-6 to no score in front after 25 minutes.
But encouragingly the Garden County finished the half the stronger of the two teams, with Nicole Curran beating goalkeeper Cuddy with a strong low shot two minutes before the interval.
And almost immediately the same player added a point from long range to cut her side’s deficit to 2-6 to 1-1.
On the restart, the predictable pattern unfolded, with the visitors adding 4-6 to their first half total, while holding their opponents scoreless.
However, it took Tyrone 17 minutes to record their third goal through goalkeeper Cuddy, who moved outfield for the second half.
And their three remaining green flags were raised by McErlean (two) and Aoife Morgan on 52, 54 and 56 minutes.
Scorers – Tyrone: Roisin McErlean 3-4 (0-2f), Aoife Morgan 1-3, Orla Coyle 1-1, Kelley Cuddy 1-0, Casey Gallagher 0-2, Grainne Rafferty, Regan Fay 0-1 each. Wicklow: Nicole Curran 1-1.
Kelley Cuddy; Aisling McLaughlin, Kathy Jordan, Siobhan Donnelly, Niamh Coyle, Aine McNulty, Orla Coyle, Amy Barrett, Reagan Fay, Kira Donnelly, Aoife Morgan, Roisin McErlean. Subs: Mairead Donnelly, Casey Gallagher, Grainne Rafferty.
TYRONE:
Katie Daynes (Donard-Glen), Amy Barrett (Donard-Glen), Niamh Shannon (Annacurra), Sarah Lifely (Annacurra), Aisling Shannon (Annacurra), Jade Byrne (Kilcoole), Nicole Curran (Carnew), Ciara Kelly (Kilcoole), Emma Doyle (Annacurra), Emily-Rose Byrne (Annacurra), Jessica Maxwell (Good Counsel, Dublin), Emma Murphy (Aughrim).
WICKLOW: REFEREE:
Ray Kelly (Kildare).