Lismore skipper Shauna Kiernan with the Waterford Senior Camogie trophy following victory over St Anne's at Fraher Field. She’s already dreaming of further silverware. See Sport 4 for more
With a third successive county senior camogie title in the bag, Lismore captain Shauna Kiernan cut a most satisfied figure following her side’s five-point win over St Anne’s at Fraher Field. And she’s hoping for a long, productive winter in this year of years for Deise camogie.
“Well I’m absolutely delighted to be here holding the cup,” said the beaming Lismore centre-back in the wake of last Saturday’s deserved and hard-earned win.
“Shona Curran did a great job last, she definitely left me with big boots to fill, but it was a great honour for me to walk up the steps today and accept the cup on behalf of our club today.”
At half-time, Lismore trailed by 1-4 to 0-5, having sent seven shots wide in the opening half hour.
And during that interval, Seamus Prendergast’s side huddled at the Country End of the ground (not a pre-match decision by the way), foregoing the trip to the dressing room. They knew they’d more in them, as the second half duly proved, primarily through the scoring prowess of the outstanding Aoife Hannon.
“We knew that we didn’t do ourselves justice in the first half – we knew we had way more in us,” conceded Shauna Kiernan.
“It’s always a battle against St Anne’s and we always look forward to playing them but we knew we had way more in the tank and we wanted to leave our best out on the field there today, do our club proud, do everyone back home proud, do our club proud and all our supporters proud and I think we did that in the end today.”
And key to that second half resurgence were Aoife Hannon and Waterford’s All-Ireland winning captain Caithriona McGlone, whom Shauna described as “amazing players – wherever they are on the field, they’ve the ability to take hold of a game.
“But we’ve an extraordinary panel. We have some amazing players; we’ve the county players who were involved in the All-Ireland win and they’re still so hungry. They’d one cup won in the last few weeks and they showed they were hungry for more. And we’d Tanya Morrissey behind us in goal making some great saves, she’s a great last line to have in goal and we’re lucky to have her.”
But there’ll be no resting on laurels out Lismore way, with their All-Ireland Final defeat to Piltown still fresh in their minds. Next up: a provincial meeting against either Tipperary or Cork opposition on the weekend of November 14th.
“Even now, I know there’s way more in this team as we go forward in this Championship,” said a determined Shauna Kiernan.
“We weren’t just coming here today with the County Final in mind. We were coming here with the Munster Final and the All-Ireland Final in mind, and it’s all about getting back to Croke Park. Once you get to Croke Park, there really is no better feeling than playing there. We just want to get back there and win.”
