Sitting fourth in the standings, Waterford have one win, one draw and one loss on the board in the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Group 2.
Results against Kilkenny have been hard to come by for the Déíse and on Saturday in Nowlan Park, Jerry Wallace's side battled tooth and nail with the Cats to take a draw and put themselves in contention for a place in the knockout stages.
It ended 1.13 a piece in Kilkenny with star attacker Beth Carton once again impressing with nine points while Lorraine Bray, Niamh Rockett and Roisin Kirwan all scored a point each. Goalkeeper Brianna O'Regan was also pulling off some of her classic tricks to deny the hosts two second-half goal-scoring chances.
The team has a two-week break before their trip up to play Antrim on June, 22nd.
Manager Jerry Wallace had mixed emotions after the full-time whistle in Nowlan Park which saw his side share the spoils, but the predominant feeling was contentment with the result.
"Delighted in one sense, and then a small bit subdued," Wallace told WLR Sport.
"The girls would have seen a different side to me at halftime because I thought we had a great chance at winning it. I really pushed them to take the anchor off. Like, I said to them before the match, as far as I was concerned, it was like the boat down in Dungarvan that comes into the harbour, there was an anchor on it and I said it was time for Waterford Camogie to take off that anchor and go win a match against one of the top three times."
"I nearly got them across the line today, but I’m happy because now we’re going to move into a quarter-final or even an All-Ireland semi-final if we can look after out day in Antrim and when Derry come down."
"This group are getting better and there are players coming back that are going to make this group better, too."
A win for Waterford over the Cats would have marked a first-ever at senior level., and while they will be disappointed not to get over the line, further chances could well present themselves in more significant games later in the season.
Result aside, the manager was happy with what he saw between the white lines, and most importantly how they dealt with the crunch moments.
"In the Camogie League, we were playing brilliantly but we weren’t getting any little break or any result, but wasn’t it fabulous on the last ball there today? Point down in the 63rd minute and O’Brien [Mairead], we got word out to her to steady the ship, out to the forwards, we needed to get that score and they took it on in the middle of a match and we got that point to equalise, so I’m really happy coming home today."
"I’d like to have won, but I’d take the draw against Kilkenny any day of the week."
