Opening round previews of TG4 Senior Championship

Opening rounds of TG4 Senior Championbship By Fr Liam
Kelleher

On this Saturday the opening rounds of the Munster Senior
Ladies TG4 Football championships take place. There are
2 intriguing games in prospect. Waterford v Kery and Cork
v Clare.

Long time Munster Kingpins Waterford take on a Kerry team
that dominated the scene in the 80’s and early nineties,
winning 9 All-Ireland titles. Both sides meet at Walsh Park
in Waterford at 2pm in what should be a marvellous encounter.
Waterford failed to make the play off stages of the Suzuki
National league, while Kerry were unfortunate to lose the
final by a point, when Laois hit them with 3 points in added
time.

On Saturday they will take the first step on the hoped for
return to the glory days. It is hard to believe that Kerry
have not won a single Munster Championship match in 10 years
What will help them this year is the fact that each of the
4 teams in the Senior Championship play each other with
the top 2 progressing to the Munster final, up to this year
there was one chance and one chance only. There will also
be a back door system after the Munster final with the winning
going through to the Semi’s while the losers go on to contest
the quarter finals. This is a game that could go either
way. Kerry on League form will be favourites and have trained
hard all year.

Waterford have been keeping a low profile, but with Michael
Ryan still at the helm they will be well motivated and they
too have had a huge number of training sessions and will
be hoping to get off to a winning start, home advantage
must be worth a few scores to them. Both sides also meet
at Junior level at the 3.30pm Cork tackle Clare. The other
game is fixed for Ardfinnan in Tipperary when Cork take
on Clare at 2pm. Cork with a very young team shocked Clare
the reigning Munster champions at the time in the first
round last year, with all the survivors from that game available
Cork will fancy their chances, Clare under Dan Sheedy will
be anxious to prove their win of 2001 was not a flash in
the pan.

This game will go right to the wire. Cork play Tipperary
in the Junior grade at the same venue at 3.30pm. Tipperary
lost by a point to Limerick in the opening round and have
to win to stay in contention., Cork on the other hand have
had the experience of a good campaign in Div 3 of the Suzuki
League and lost to a fine Galway team in the final.

Fr Liam Kelleher PRO 087-8516984