U-16 win in dead rubber

WEXFORD ENDED their All-Ireland Under-16 ‘A’ camogie championship Group 1 campaign in winning fashion, seeing off Limerick for a worthless victory in Claughaun on Saturday.

The game rounded out the inter-county season for this squad of players and all in all it has been a difficult and disappointing few months for this age group. Coming quickly on the back of an All-Ireland appearance at Under-16 last year, Wexford have had nothing close to that success.

Wexford only beat All-Ireland ‘B’ graded Offaly in Leinster, losing to Dublin and Kilkenny, and were thumped by Tipperary and Galway in the All-Ireland series before getting this win against fellow strugglers Limerick.

Given the success of school sides this year, this is obviously a situation Wexford camogie are going to have to examine in the coming weeks as preparations start for 2019. They’ll need to get to the bottom of the problem and make sure this type of season is not repeated next year.

Sitting on a -67 score difference from their own games against Galway and Tipperary, Limerick are clearly struggling themselves.

They were able to keep this game close in the first-half, with a cracking Emma Dempsey goal helping the Slaneysiders into a 1-5 to 1-3 interval advantage.

With Loren Doyle bossing the game in midfield, and Limerick goalkeeper Róisín O’Riordan pulling off save after save, Wexford dominated.

Lisa Kelly and Aoife O’Connor added their names to the list of scorers as the contest wore on with points.

Clearly the game’s third goal was set to be vital and it came with another unstoppable finish from the ever-dangerous Molly Crowdle.

It was enough to break the hosts’ resistance and they managed just four second-half points as Wexford took the win.