Kittens Maul Wexford Ladies

2019 Liberty Insurance Senior Camogie Championship

Wexford 0-6
Kilkenny 7-28

By Máirtín Ó Caoillte

A Ruthless Display helped Kilkenny maintain their 100% start to the Liberty Insurance Senior Championship

The Kittens  travelled to Bellfield home of Hawkeye Official Dickie Murphy to take on Wexford in round 2 of the Liberty Insurance Senior Championship came away with a facile win. The old cliché that you can only beat what’s in front of you was to the fore as Wexford who were manager less for most of the year, were powerless to stop a rampant Kilkenny outfit.

The visitors hit the ground running, taking just 23 seconds to open their account with a Katie Power point. She doubled her tally with another point from play in the fourth minute before Chloe Foxe, Wexford’s only scorer on the day, narrowed the gap with a fifth minute free.

Kilkenny stepped up the pace, stringing together points from Anne Dalton, Power and Denise Gaule. The forwards were dominant, leaving the Wexford backs seeing stars. It wasn’t all one-way traffic; Emma Kavanagh was called into action after Claire Phelan lost possession, allowing Amy Cardiff to run at the Kittens defence. She unleashed a menacing shot but Kavanagh managed to beat the sliotar away for a 45. Foxe would score the resulting 45 but, by the 18^th minute Kilkenny had restored their grip on the game to lead 0-8 to 0-2 thanks to points from Gaule, Walsh and Meg Farrell. Foxe tacked on another free bringing her tally to 0-3 but that’s all Wexford had to offer.

Katie Power and Aoife Doyle would get two further points before Kilkenny’s first goal. Some lovely intricate play between Power and Dalton saw the ball fall to Miriam Walsh, who slotted the ball home. Kilkenny were rampant. Three Aoife Doyle points were followed by like scores from Gaule and Anna Farrell pushing the gap out to 15 points by the 25^th minute. The visitors snapped up a second goal, Power pouncing after Gaule’s brilliant shot had been saved. A Doyle point was answered by two Foxe frees but on the stroke of half time the Kittens bagged a wonderful individual goal.
POETRY IN MOTION

Anne Dalton received a ball out around the middle. She took off on a solo – she couldn’t catch the ball again – so lobbed the sliotar over two defenders on the way towards goal before drilling the ball to the net. It was poetry in motion!! At half time Kilkenny led by 3-16 to 0-5. All but one point of their tally came from play.

Wexford needed to come out strongest in the second half, to try and put up some sort of a fight. However, thing went from bad to worse as, right from the throw-in, Kilkenny went on the attack. Miriam Walsh started the move which involved Anne Dalton and Denise Gaule before Walsh got possession back and drilled the ball to the net. A minute later Katie Power sent a long Crossfield ball across to Meg Farrell. A quick hand-pass to Walsh sent back to Power and bang – Kilkenny had a second goal in the space of two minutes. Even at that stage it really was game over, as Wexford heads began to drop. Kilkenny, on the other hand never let up. Gaule helped herself to three points with Meg Farrell and Anne Dalton also on target. Katie Power completed her hat-trick of goals in the 38^th minute, after which time manager Ann Downey felt it was time to empty the bench.

Kilkenny tagged on a further seven points with Miriam Walsh (2), Danielle Morrissey (2), Denise Gaule (2) and Steffi Fitzgerald all contributing to the rout. Wexford registered their only score of the second half in the dying seconds of normal time, a Chloe Foxe free, but it was Kilkenny who finished the scoring. Michelle Quilty had the final say. She anticipated a breaking ball before latching onto it first time to drill a low shot past Lara O’Shea. Of their 7-28 haul, Kilkenny notched up 7-24 from play. While wexford had a lot of rebuilding work to do, for Kilkenny its now two wins from two. They will be keen to make it three when they Face Offaly in Nowlan Park on Saturday at 5pm. The game will be part of a double header, as its paired with the refixed first round clash between Waterford and Tipperary at 3pm.

Scorers
Wexford: Chloe Foxe (0-5, 5 frees)
Kilkenny: Katie Power (3-4); Miriam Walsh (2-3); Denise Gaule (0-8, 4 frees); Anne Dalton (1-2); Aoife Doyle (0-5); Michelle Quilty (1-0); Meg Farrell, Danielle Morrissey (0-2 each); Ann Farrell, Steffi Fitzgerald (0-1 each).

Wexford:- Lara O Shea, Clodagh Jackman, Shauna Sinnott, Sinead Furlong, Emma Walsh, Katie O Connor, Aoife Guiney, Una Sinnott, Amy Cardiff, Tara Doyle, Linda Bolger, Chloe Foxe, Leah Walsh, Joanne Dillon, Mags Byrne,
Subs: Anais Curran for Dillon, Sorcha Foley for Walsh, Katie Sludds for Una Sinnott, Megan Cullen for Byrne

Kilkenny:- Emma Kavanagh, Collette Dormer, Catherine Foley, Grace Walsh, Michelle Teehan, Claire Phelan, Edwina Keane, Denise Gaule, Anne Dalton, Anna Farrell, Miriam Walsh, Davina Tobin, Meg Farrell, Aoife Doyle, Katie Power
Subs:- Michelle Quilty for Anna Farrell, Danielle Morrissey for Grace Walsh, Michaela Kenneally for Edwina Keane, Steffi Fitzgerald for Katie Power, Niamh Deely for Anne Dalton

Referee: Ray Kelly (Kildare)