LGFA MATCH PROGRAMME: NOIRIN WALSH-KELLY (WATERFORD)
By Daire Walsh
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the LGFA’s most enduring innovation and Waterford’s Noirin Walsh Kelly has a vivid recollection of it being put into practice.
In the All-Ireland senior championship final of 1997, 11 minutes and 52 seconds of stoppage-time were played before Monaghan were able to toast a 2-15 to 1-16 victory over the Munster champions. This was the subject of much discussion given how rare it is for a half to run for so long, but on RTE’s The Sunday Game on the evening of this contest, Pat Spillane explained in forensic detail how referee Finbarr O’Driscoll was justified in adding on as much time as he did.
Nevertheless, the LGFA recognised there was an alternative way for match officials to manage time and this led to a stop/countdown clock and hooter being introduced for the 1998 championship. This meant it was in place for the drawn and replayed All-Ireland finals between Waterford and Monaghan, and it has become a staple of ladies football ever since.
“The ladies association, in fairness to them, were brilliant. They didn’t dilly, dally over it or take a couple of years to do it,” Walsh Kelly remembers of the LGFA’s decision to introduce a new clock system.
“They said ‘let’s just do this, let’s just nip it in the bud, put a clock up there’ and it changed ladies football. The following year the clock was there and it’s super. It has cut out any issues or question marks over time and all that.”
A 2-14 to 3-8 win against Monaghan in that year’s All-Ireland final replay saw Walsh Kelly picking up her fifth and final Celtic Cross in the Waterford colours. In addition to ’97 and ’98, these two counties had also squared off in the 1994 and 1995 Brendan Martin deciders with the Deise securing the spoils on both occasions.
Before that, it was Laois who provided Waterford with the biggest challenge on the national stage. Having halted Kerry’s bid for a 10th consecutive All-Ireland crown in the Munster Championship, there was significant pressure on Waterford in advance of their October 1991 showdown with the O’Moore County.
Yet Walsh Kelly and her colleagues ultimately came through with seven points to spare (5-8 to 3-7) and went on to defeat Laois again in the 1992 All-Ireland final.
“There was huge excitement [in 1991] and going to Croke Park with any Waterford team was very unusual. We were a bit starved of trips to Croke Park in any code, be it men or women. We had a very young team at that time and we had the hunger for it.
“Playing in All-Ireland finals for some of those young players wasn’t as daunting as it could have been. It was just if we could manage the expectations of Croke Park or the whole thing with Croke Park. The excitement and all that, which we managed to do.”
For Waterford’s comprehensive All-Ireland final triumph of 1995 over Monaghan, Walsh Kelly (who also won an astonishing 10 All-Ireland senior club titles with Ballymacarbry) had the honour of being captain. However, she reflects on the 1994 success against the same county with as much pride due to Waterford being knocked off their perch by Kerry a year earlier.
“To come back in ’94, that for me was one of the best ones because we had let it slip in ’93. Our heads weren’t right. To go back in ’94 and do it in ’94, it took a massive, massive effort. For me, I think ’94 was one of the main ones,” Walsh Kelly added.