UNTIL THE AGE of 12, Waterford star forward Beth Carton didn’t have a camogie team to play for.
A member of the famous De La Salle club in Waterford city, she played with the boys of her age group before the camogie division was founded in 2008. She was also a regular sight around the grounds, pucking the ball over and back with her father Joey. If she was on her own, the wall would do for practising her striking instead.
Last year, De La Salle lifted their first senior county title to illustrate their swift rise to the pinnacle of Waterford camogie. Carton scored seven points in the final as they stopped Gailtir from completing a five-in-a-row drive to create history.
Carton stands on the brink of another huge milestone this weekend. For the first time in 78 years, Waterford will be competing in the All-Ireland senior camogie final against Cork. Carton has been instrumental to that growth too, as she aims to add senior glory to the intermediate crown she won in 2015. There’s a haul of three All-Stars packed in there as well. But even in the thick of her commitment to Waterford, she’s still a regular around De La Salle.
“You just knew early doors that this girl was going to be something special,” De La Salle and Waterford legend John Mullane tells The 42 about what he knows of Carton’s quality. Mullane is also part of the De La Salle camogie backroom team, and is in his fourth year of service.
“She had a hurley in her hand when she was born. Even looking at her now, she’s a fabulous role model for any kid or any girl that’s up in De La Salle.
”They all look up to her so much. Not alone that, she’s just so humble and she could up in the club seven nights a week banging a ball against the wall. Her whole life is camogie. She’s so involved with inter-county but she’s up there every Wednesday and Saturday morning training the next generation of kids.
“Beth Carton is probably the best player in the country at the moment.”
Mullane came to become involved with the camogie of his club through his daughters. From player to parent to coach. It’s the typical trajectory of many former inter-county stars. Some give back to their club. Others reinvest the knowledge they’ve accumulated back into the county system. Mullane is lending all of what he knows from a hurling career that yielded five All-Stars and four Munster titles to the emerging camogie stars in De La Salle.
Some of his old Waterford comrades are travelling a similar road. Dan Shanahan was a coach with the Waterford camogie team in 2020, while Paul Flynn is part of the current Waterford backroom team.
“It goes full cycle where it’s payback time now where you give back to the club,” Mullane explains about the importance of harvesting the next generation of talent.
“It mightn’t be for some people and we need to break down that element of being involved with a female’s team. People think it’s not for them and that they’d rather be involved in the men’s side of it.
“I don’t see it that way and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I actually find girls and women are actually easier to deal with than men at the best of times. If you ask girls to do something, they’ll do it in a heartbeat whereas if you ask men or boys, some of them will question it. Women will never give out and the appreciation I find within the female sport is far greater.
“When you’re volunteering your time and you feel that you’re some way appreciated, you don’t mind giving your time back.”
And the girls have done it too… Senior Camogie County Champions.. Gailitir 1-10 DLS 1-12… What a day for our Club & U14 County Final tomorrow morning #DLSAbu 🏆⚪️🔴🏆🤍❤️ pic.twitter.com/flCO4x03ig
— De La Salle GAA & Camogie Waterford (@DLSGAA) October 15, 2022
There are five De La Salle players on the Waterford squad that will contest the All-Ireland final on Sunday. They have four representatives in the starting team, beginning with Brianna O’Regan in goal. Keeley Corbett-Barry is one third of the half-back line, while Carton operates at centre-half forward. Niamh Murphy is the fifth squad member.
Carton [0-8, 4 frees] and O’Regan [1 free] accounted for nine points of the 1-12 Waterford scored to defeat Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final. Carton is the top-scorer so far in this year’s championship, but her contribution in that semi-final victory extends far beyond her tally of points.
Waterford’s march to that win in Nowlan Park was built on a rally from a 1-7 to 0-3 deficit in the first half. And Carton was at the core of their comeback. She put in a defensive shift when the Tipperary onslaught was overwhelming, dropping deep to collect O’Regan’s puckouts to help them out of the rut. A Mairéad Power goal resuscitated Waterford from their coma in the 25th minute.
Carton popped up again during that sequence when she collected a pass from midfielder Lorraine Bray before slinging her shot inside the post to bring further calm to the Waterford cause. Her supremacy in front of the posts ultimately pushed Waterford into the lead in the second half, as she notched three points between the 39th and 45th minute to bring her side from a point behind to one in front.
Carton was seen again in the Waterford defence minutes before full-time as she helped apply sufficient pressure to force Tipperary’s Grace O’Brien to overplay the ball. A one-point advantage was all they needed at full-time.
“Within the last 12 months, her game has elevated to a different level,” says Mullane on the evolution of Carton’s game to this point of distinction.
“It’s the work she does when she doesn’t have the ball. If you went to a game and just watched her for 60 odd minutes, she might get the ball, but it’s the work she does when she doesn’t have the ball. You look at all the top class forwards across camogie, what she has brought into her game is that, before, when she wasn’t getting on the ball, she might be getting a small bit frustrated.
“But now, she’s got the patience where if she doesn’t have the ball, she’s patient to wait knowing that she’ll get her five or 10-minute spell and do the damage then.
“That was evident in the semi-final against Tipperary. You look at her working her socks off and when she’s working her socks off and being heavily involved without the ball in her hand. And when she does have the ball in her hand, she’s able to pop up with those big moments.
“It’s next to impossible to hold her for 62 or 63 minutes. Even if she’s not involved for the first five or 10 minutes, I think what she has developed into her game is the patience to wait.”
Reports of a record-breaking crowd are being linked with this year’s All-Ireland final as the 30,000 mark looks set to be breached. Throughout Waterford’s successful championship journey, their supporters have been lauded for their vocals from the stand when the need was greatest.
Waterford have beaten Cork already this year, when Seán Power’s side won by three points to book their place in the Munster semi-final. That result should give Waterford some buoyancy heading into Sunday’s decider, but Mullane is wary of the travelling faithful coming up from Leeside.
“There was 7,000 at the game [in Nowlan Park] and 4,000 or 5,000 were from Waterford. There’s massive excitement down here and I would fully expect that there would be a massive following up there.
“Equally, the team they’re playing will bring a decent following. Cork are one of the big three and they always travel well. I would anticipate that Cork will bring a big crowd as well. There’s a feel good factor around the county that they haven’t been there since 1945 and we don’t get to Croke Park too often.
“And the fact that this season was a small bit disappointing with the men, people see this as a great opportunity to travel up to Croke Park and be there on All-Ireland final day.
“But what won’t stand to Cork is that they’ve lost the last couple of finals, and that brings an awful lot of pressure on this Cork team going into the final. They nearly have to go and win it whereas it’s a first final for our girls and sometimes that’s the best time to go and win it.”
78 years could disappear into the air on Sunday evening if Waterford can rinse out Cork’s quest to reclaim the O’Duffy Cup for the first time since 2018. It took the Déise five consecutive attempts to get through the All-Ireland quarter-final barrier, and after losing out to Cork in last year’s semi-final, they will take another step towards ending their great hunger.
From having no camogie outlet until she was 12, to standing on the verge of greatness, Beth Carton will have a major say in Sunday’s outcome.
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