Waterford Masters 2-13
Wicklow Masters 1-5
The second game of the 2025 championship for Waterford Masters took place Saturday 7th of June with Wicklow travelling down to Kill for a 2pm throw in.
This fixture saw both sides in search of a maiden victory with Waterford falling to a 2.11 to 0.10 defeat to Laois in the opening round whilst Wicklow fell to a narrow 2 point defeat at the hands of Kildare.
Captain Ray Hennessy won the toss and elected to play with the strong wind blowing into the clubhouse end, however it was the visitors who struck first raising the first white flag of the afternoon.
Waterford’s account was opened on after 4 minutes through a long range effort from Wayne Hennessy and within 90 seconds he doubled both his and Waterford’s tally. Waterford dominated the early exchanges and had a strong foothold around the middle third, however errant shooting with the wide count beginning to stack up.
The key moment in first half arrived on approx. the 15 minute mark – a shot from Mark Nugent came back off the upright which saw Emmett Doherty react first and dispatch to the net. This goal couldn’t have come at a better time as Wicklow had began to grow into game and further scores from Ray Hennessy and Brian Power saw Waterford lead going in at half time 1.6 to 0.02 points.
Management made full use of the 22 strong panel available, as players were continually rotated in and out of the game, this was something that would tell in the second half when ball carrying would be to the fore against the strong breeze.
The second half began same as the first half with Wicklow again to the fore and opened with a point and soon after disaster struck. Some good Waterford interplay and a fine move up
field broke down inside the Wicklow 45 and seconds later the ball ended up in hands of a Wicklow forward who was judged to have been pulled down with a penalty awarded and dually dispatched leaving just 3 points between the sides after 10 minutes of the second half, which in truth was not a fair reflection of the game which had been all Waterford.
The Wicklow goal seemed to focus Waterford minds and showing the benefit of the deep panel on the day began to get the score board ticking again, points from Lee Hayes, Tony Whelan and a fisted point from David Whelan (the side step alone, like something from Saturday Night Fever was worth the entrance fee) saw the gap stretch to 6 again as the game approached the 3 quarter mark.
As Wicklow tired, Waterford continued to build and further points from Whelan, Hayes and Gearoid O Connor saw gap grow further and as the game approached its end the “Kill”-er blow came from Niall Hennessy after a sweeping move dispatched a low shot to the Wicklow net and with that sealed Waterford’s first victory of the season on a score line of 2.13 to 1.5
This was a much-improved Waterford performance in many aspects and certainly the benefit of the Laois game was clear for anyone to see, a strong defensive performance with Wicklow only registering 2 points from play proving to be the catalyst for teams first win of the season.
Next up for Waterford is Game 3 of 6 in the group stages of this championship, a home game vs Limerick in Kirwan Park, Tournaneena down for a 1pm throw in on Saturday June 14th.
Waterford Panel: Tomàs Wall (Bonmahon), Mark Prendergast (Kilrossanty) Thomas O Gorman (The Nire), Niall Hennessy (1.0) (Kill), Robin Croke (Gaultier), Tony Whelan (C) (0.3) (Tramore), Padraig Bambrick (Gaultier), Wayne Hennessy (0.2) (Ardmore), Patrick Lynch (Ballinacourty), Mark Nugent (Dunhill), David Whelan (0.1) (Sliabh Gcua / St Marys), Brian Power (0.1) (St Saviours), Emmett Doherty (1.2) (Butlerstown), Ray Hennessy (0.1) (Kill), Gearoid O Connor (0.1) (Gaultier), John Conway (Ardmore), Richard Finnegan (Gaultier), Anthony Jacob (St Saviours), Gordon O Regan (Gaultier), Jim Halley (Fenor), Barry Dunne (Clashmore / Kinsalebeg), Denis Coffey (Sliabh Gcua / St Marys), Lee Hayes (0.2) (De La Salle)
