Martin’s aiming for glory Footballers reach rock bottom in Division 4
Camogie team 60 minutes away from All-Ireland title
ST. MARTIN’S will become the 26th different winner, the fourth from Wexford, if they can get the better of double defending champions Slaughtneil in the AIB All-Ireland Senior Club camogie championship final in Croke Park on Sunday (3.30 p.m.).
That’s the aim, but doing it is going to be tough. However, having gone through Wexford, past the Kilkenny winners and around the Cork champions, there really isn’t anything to be scared of.
It can be their time but they will need to prove it on the pitch. And they have been doing just that all season.
St. Martin’s can look to their great rivals Oulart-The Ballagh for inspiration, and their exploits can actually give the Piercestown and Murrintown girls further belief. Oulart-The Ballagh are a two-time All-Ireland winner that should probably have won three times that amount.
That’s not just about the talent they had, just look at their wins and it tells the story. When Oulart-The Ballagh put it together and played to their potential at this stage of the competition, they blew the opposition away.
In 2011 they won their semi-final against Loughgiel by 26 points, and their final versus Drom-Inch by 17. In 2015 they beat the same Antrim side by ten and eased past Mullagh of Galway by 15.
Why is it important? Because St. Martin’s might not have the experience just yet to batter teams like Oulart-The Ballagh did, but they are following a similar path, insofar as their form is on an upward trajectory and they are playing their best camogie right now. They are peaking.
Look at their season. They moved through the group stages without being hugely impressive. Katie O’Connor talks about the first Oulart-The Ballagh game in her interview inside, about knowing how her side could really compete.
She probably knew before most of her team-mates because the real belief has come with big wins. Their semi-final success against Rathnure might have been as ugly as the game can get, but look at what it started.
It was 0-7 each at the end of normal time, with St. Martin’s edging it by 0-9 to 0-8 after extra-time in Bellefield.
Oulart-The Ballagh were gutsy in the final but the county champions proved their credentials by taking their second crown in succession (1-10 to 1-6).
Thomastown made things a little easier for their Wexford opponents when Ailish Butler was sent-off after seven minutes. Still, there was a theme emerging as St. Martin’s conceded just seven scores again on their way to a 2-10 to 1-6 victory.
New silverware arrived in the clubhouse in Piercestown after that Leinster final win, but the thing about provincial success is there’s always a slightly sour taste if you don’t push on and at least reach an All-Ireland final.
Cork side Inniscarra didn’t have the firepower to push on under intense pressure and, the longer the game went on, the more it felt like St. Martin’s were going to keep extending their advantage.
In the end a 0-11 to 0-5 success didn’t flatter the victors in the slightest.
So if you are keeping count that’s seven, seven, seven and five scores conceded in St. Martin’s last four 60-minute games. Those aren’t four little practice matches down some back alley, those are the biggest four games of their season.
Why wouldn’t St. Martin’s gain belief from that run? Having a pretty settled team helps. The same 15 has started their last three games.
Apart from the season-ending knee injury that Sarah O’Connor picked up last year, their key players have been healthy.
Obviously it’s important to have your best players but there is no substitute for the comfort of continuity, Knowing who is beside you, who is behind you, knowing who is covering for you, game in, game out, has been huge for St. Martin’s.
They will need to know their team-mates’ jobs as well as their own when they face Slaughtneil from Derry. They beat Loughgiel by 0-11 to 0-8 in the Ulster final, their first real competitive game of the season, and then dismissed Galway’s Ardrahan by 0-8 to 0-4 in the All-Ireland semi.
The champs are blessed defensively with the Ní Chasaide sisters. Brona was on the field when Derry drew with the Wexford Intermediates in 2017, while both Aoife and Eilis have ample inter-county experience.
Reports suggest they tend to operate with the industrious Louise Dougan as a sweeper, but they also have bucket-loads of experience and some weapons that can harm any side in the attacking portion of the field.
Teresa Mellon is an experienced operator who also played in that Intermediate game two seasons ago.
Shannon Graham of Antrim is no stranger to facing Wexford either, while Offaly sharpshooter Tina Hannon is free-taker and probably the best known of their attacking options.
Will St. Martin’s do it? Time will tell, they will be bookies’ underdogs against the two-time champions but that will mean nothing for those 60 minutes.
If they defend like they have to date and continue on their upward curve they will win this game, potentially by more than one score.
Likely St. Martin’s line-up: Mags D’Arcy; Aisling O’Connor, Noeleen Lambert, Marie Claire Morrissey; Áine Ennis, Katie O’Connor (capt.), Mary Barrett; Ciara O’Connor, Ella O’Connor; Amy Cardiff, Linda Bolger, Chloe Foxe; Lettie Whelan, Anna Hennessy, Emma Codd.
IT WAS generally felt that Wexford football had reached its nadir in that shambolic showing in London earlier this month, but we now know that this sadly wasn’t the case.
A very bad situation was rendered even worse before a paltry attendance of 272 in Innovate Wexford Park on Sunday when the team conceded a score more in keeping with an Under-12 game en route to a morale-shattering seven-point loss to 14-man Waterford in Division 4 of the Allianz League.
The ease in which the visitors were able to punish a very poor losing team repeatedly on the break was a sign of a serious coaching malaise as Waterford collected their first victory of the campaign, despite being a man short for the entire second-half.
And the outcome has painted a very sorry picture on the league table, with Wexford now placed rock bottom out of the 32 competing teams by virtue of a vastly inferior score difference (-24 as opposed to -8 for their conquerors on Sunday).
The least that anyone would have expected after the trimming in London was a strong response, especially on home soil, but it wasn’t forthcoming on another dismal and depressing day.
Waterford hadn’t won a competitive game since beating Wexford at the same venue in the All-Ireland qualifiers last summer, but new manager Benji Whelan and his backroom team, including recent Starlights boss Joe Hagan, had their homework done and got the victory they deserved, albeit with a very unusual scoreline.
Wexford have now conceded ten goals in four outings, keeping just one clean sheet, while they have only raised one green flag themselves in their sole victory at home to Antrim.
The county is at its lowest point that I can ever remember, and the general body language would suggest a growing disconnect between the management and at least some of the players.
Four changes were made from the London loss, with Gavin Sheehan and Conor Devitt both returning from injury, Glen Malone back after serving his suspension, and Ben Brosnan making his first start of the league campaign.
Shane Doyle, Mark O’Neill, Eoin Porter and Barry O’Connor were moved to the substitutes’ bench, although the former sustained an injury in the pre-match warm-up, while the latter was one of the few decent performers and picked off two points following his introduction.
Wexford had a shocking wides count of 14, compared to a mere three from the victors, and they were spread fairly evenly throughout, with six before the break and eight in the second period.
Some of the shot selection was quite simply awful, and there was a distinct lack of patience on several occasions when they met a wall of Waterford players around the opposition 45-metre line and repeatedly took the wrong options.
In addition, the ball handling left a lot to be desired, with possession squandered time and time again as a result of poor concentration rather than the tackling ability of the winners.
Jason Curry opened Waterford’s account after 63 seconds when he played a one-two with Tommy Prendergast from a ’45, but Wexford responded with the next three points.
Jonathan Bealin started at full-forward rather than the ’40 on this occasion, and a fair case can be made that he has been his team’s best performer of the league thus far.
He did nothing to disprove that theory when he got on the end of a fine move involving Brian Malone (restored to a more familiar defensive role), Daithí Waters and Conor Devitt before kicking a neat left-footed leveller in the third minute.
An Eoghan Nolan effort that appeared to be dropping well short bounced over the crossbar midway through the opening quarter, and Bealin doubled his tally with a booming high kick from a Ben Brosnan off-load to make it 0-3 to 0-1.
The first two of those 14 wides followed from Conor Carty and Bealin, with Wexford losing Martin O’Connor – who had been a concern beforehand – in between owing to injury.
Tiarnan Rossiter came in to replace him at left half-back, and the home side had their first let-off in the 17th minute when a goal attempt by Fearghal Ó Cuirrín was blocked.
Jason Gleeson shook off the close attention of Michael Furlong to kick a solo point, with Brosnan and John Tubritt adding wides before the latter restored the twopoint lead from a Daithí Waters pass at the end of a patient move in the 27th minute (0-4 to 0-2).
The first of the Waterford goals arrived just under 60 seconds later, with three Wexford players drawn to big midfielder Tommy Prendergast like bees to honey.
This meant that when he popped a handpass in behind the defensive cover, Ó Cuirrín was able to gallop in from the left wing and bury the ball in Matt Doyle’s net.
Kevin O’Grady and John Tubritt brought the wides tally to six, before Eoghan Nolan equalised after a fine crossfield Jonathan Bealin pass (0-5 to 1-2).
However, Waterford netted again twelve seconds into first-half added time when Seán Whelan-Barrett and the influential Fearghal Ó Cuirrín combined to find Dylan Guiry who accepted the latter’s pass at pace and calmly picked his spot for a three-point lead.
The visitors’ tails were well and truly up after that score, but they suffered what should have been a major setback when full-back Ray Ó Ceallaigh received a straight red card for what referee John Hickey indicated was use of the boot on Ben Brosnan prior to a Wexford free that Jonathan Bealin pointed (2-2 to 0-6).
The home side resumed on the front foot, but only had one point to show for nearly ten minutes of camping in the leaders’ half.
That came from a Bealin mark after a Daithí Waters pass, but a golden goal chance came to nothing in the 38th minute when Brosnan found Tiarnan Rossiter whose shot was well saved by Aaron Beresford.
In addition, Bealin, Tubritt (three) and Brosnan contributed to that mounting wides count before Waterford lifted the siege.
Although they only attacked at irregular intervals in that second-half, they looked menacing every time when faced by a porous Wexford defence.
The tracking back left a great deal to be desired, and Shane Ahearne kicked a ’45 in the 47th minute after a shot by Fearghal Ó Cuirrín took a deflection over the endline off Gavin Sheehan (2-3 to 0-7).
Conor Devitt screwed a point attempt well wide before a brief purple patch gave Wexford the lead at a stage when they should have been able to capitalise to the full.
A good tackle by Eoghan Nolan started a move that ended with clubmate Glen Malone coming forward for a point, and his fellow defender Conor Carty duly equalised after Waterford’s Jack Mullaney lost possession from the subsequent short kick-out.
Jonathan Bealin then pointed a free on the left wing after our neighbours were penalised for a line ball that didn’t travel the required distance (0-10 to 2-3), but it all went pear-shaped from the kick-out.
That was won by Seán O’Do- novan who moved the ball on to Fearghal Ó Cuirrín with what seemed like acres of open road to run into, and the speedster bore down on the Clonard end goal before rattling the net again with a composed low finish.
Substitute Barry O’Connor pulled back a point with his first kick, but over ten scoreless minutes featuring poor football from both sides followed before the fourth, game-clinching Waterford goal.
It came from another break, as Joe Allen found Shane Ahearne whose first-time kick off the ground seemed to loop off the lower body of the unfortunate Jonathan Bealin and end up in the net (4-3 to 0-11).
O’Connor kicked what proved to be the last Wexford point, with Tommy Prendergast left in glorious isolation to respond from a crossfield Ahearne pass before the humiliation was well and truly completed.
That happened in the 67th minute when the Wexford defence was cut to pieces once more, with Prendergast, Conor Murray and Jack Mullaney exchanging passes before Murray got on the end of the move again and palmed the ball into a gaping net (5-4 to 0-12).
Wides followed from Daithí Waters and Bealin, while a ball into the square was gathered by substitute David Shannon whose attempt for a consolation goal was smothered by Aaron Beresford.
Only the lenience of referee John Hickey, and the retaliation from Joe Allen, saved Waters from a possible red card for a dangerous challenge on Brian Looby deep in added time, with the former pair shown yellow cards instead.
John Tubritt plus Waterford’s Dylan Guiry and Jack Mullaney had been booked earlier on an afternoon when Wexford were awarded ten of the game’s 23 frees.
The losers now travel to Aughrim on Saturday for round five against Wicklow, with morale lower than it has ever been.
While the league is a complete write-off at this stage, pride alone should ensure a determination to improve in the last three games and shake off that horrible unwanted tag of currently being 32nd and last of the competing teams. Surely Wexford football is better than that.
Wexford: Matt Doyle; Michael Furlong (capt.), Gavin Sheehan, Conor Carty (0-1); Glen Malone (0-1), Brian Malone, Martin O’Connor; Daithí Waters, Niall Hughes; Conor Devitt, Kevin O’Grady, Eoghan Nolan (0-2); John Tubritt (0-1), Jonathan Bealin (0-5, 2 frees, 1 mark), Ben Brosnan. Subs. - Tiarnan Rossiter for O’Connor, inj. (16), Cathal Devereux for Tubritt (50), Barry O’Connor (0-2) for Devitt (53), David Shannon for O’Grady (63), Michael O’Regan for Brosnan (67).
Waterford: Aaron Beresford; Seán O’Donovan, Ray Ó Ceallaigh, James McGrath; Seán Whelan-Barrett, Michael Curry, Jason Gleeson (0-1); Shane Ahearne (1-1, 0-1 ’45), Tommy Prendergast (0-1); Conor Murray (10), Brian Looby, Fearghal Ó Cuirrín (2-0); Jack Mullaney, Jason Curry (0-1), Dylan Guiry (1-0). Subs. - J.J. Hutchinson for J. Curry (HT), Joe Allen for Whelan-Barrett (49), Eoin O’Brien for Ó Cuirrín, inj. (62), Kieran Power for Gleeson (70), Corey Kennedy for Prendergast (70+4).
Referee: John Hickey (Carlow).