Deise taliswoman Trish Jackman celebrates with Iona Heffernan and Molly Power on the sacred sod last Sunday afternoon.
“It’s just absolutely massive,” reflected Trish Jackman in the wake of Sunday’s All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Final win over Kildare at Croke Park.
“The work that has gone on this year, and in previous years, it’s been huge. So to finally get up those steps, it’s a great achievement,” said the Gaultier clubwoman, one of this county’s finest sporting ambassadors.
“It still hasn’t sunk in, really but to do it out there is something we’ve been dreaming about for the last number of years – and obviously this year then as well, we had a lot of transition, a lot of younger players stepping up – and it’s very much been a journey since the 22nd of February, which was our first game together.”
Trish continued: “We were unbeaten in the League and in the Championship and to go up the steps of the Hogan Stand, to take that cup, having achieved our goal, it really is fantastic. Our aim was to win the All-Ireland at the start of the year and we’ve done just that.”
Despite rising slowly from the blocks, as Kildare ran up an early five-point advantage, the multiple Poc Fada champion never panicked.
“I knew we were on top,” she felt. “And I kept saying that to the girls: that we were on top. Our shooting was just letting us down, they got a goal; obviously they had a bit of momentum as well and they were creating an awful lot of space. But I felt as soon as we got to grips with the system they were playing – it was a little bit chaotic for the first 10 minutes – but once we got to grips with that, I felt we asserted a bit of domination.
“Towards the end of the end of the half, Beth and Aisling got going in the two corners and that was massive, and to take the lead going in at half-time, we just had to grind it out. The hooking and the blocking was superb; when things weren’t going well for us, we just stuck to the task and tried to minimise the score that Kildare got. And once we did that, we got on top just before half-time and that probably changed Kildare’s half-time team talk – they were probably thinking they were going to go in ahead but we just managed to get a bit of momentum ahead of the break.”
Midway through the first half, Trish reverted to the sweeper’s position, while Jennie Simpson pushed into a more advanced role in midfield, and it clearly had the desired effect.
“It’s a role that I’m quite comfortable with and once the management put me into that position, I was comfortable there; it was a tactical decision and it worked.”
Having been part of the team that won a Junior All-Ireland back in 2011, Trish was thrilled that Waterford have now taken the next step up the camogie ladder and into the rarefied air of the senior grade.
“There was more a sense of relief in 2011 than there was in winning today, I feel. We’d been knocking on the door for a while back then but we finished the game so well today; we kept going forward and I think that’s the difference: we’ve learned so much from experience…we were still creating chances right up to the end and just didn’t rest on our laurels.”
Praising manager Sean Fleming, Trish added: “Sean had great belief in us, and he was fully aware of the underage talent that was there, and then combining that with the commitment of the older players, it’s worked really well. The type of camogie he wants us to play is all about expressing ourselves and once we were allowed to that and once we knew he had trust in us, that was massive for us as a group…
“Obviously next year is going to be a big step up into senior, but that’s what we’ve all been aiming for since we started playing. We want to play at the top level and we’re going to have to go up another step but we’re delighted with the win and Sean and the lads have made a huge contribution this season, in getting us together and getting us playing a really good brand of camogie.”
Next year, Trish feels, is all about “being competitive”, citing Waterford’s only losing by three points to Clare in the Munster Championship earlier this season.
“You look at Cork, Galway, Wexford and Kilkenny and everyone is struggling to break that stranglehold – but we’re there now and we have to put in the effort to try and get up there, to that level. That’s our goal.” [With thanks to Brian Flannery]
