GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 36 - October 17, 2015 | Page 13

In Ladies football New South
Wales were going for a fourth title
on the trot while in men’s football
last year’s hosts Victoria were looking for back to back wins. In Camogie the Queensland state team were
also looking to repeat. Competing
also we had teams from South Australia (SA), as well as New Zealand
newcomers Canterbury and host’s
Wellington. Six teams lined out in
both ladies and men’s football with
three each in Camogie and Hurling
playing round robin formats.

Photo courtesy of Australasian GFHA.

LADIES FOOTBALL
The opening day on Wednesday in front of a good sized
local crowd saw in Ladies Football three games down for
decision. Conditions were windy to start things off and
this was more or less the norm for the duration of the
tournament. New team Canterbury in the opener made
their intentions known with a good display to beat fellow
Kiwis and host’s Wellington. Then South Australia with a
lot of Australians on the side kept that momentum going
surprising Queensland. Champions NSW showed they
meant business when proving too much for the ladies who
had made the epic journey from Western Australia. Six
more ladies games followed the next day with the best four
teams qualifying for the semis. Those four were NSW,
who were unbeaten and who had a narrow win over rivals
and last year’s runners-up Queensland, who also qualified,
along with SA and WA. Canterbury had succumbed to SA
and NSW with two losses also for Wellington on the day.
WA and SA met in one semi with the latter proving
much too strong. In the other semi-final everyone was
expecting another titanic battle between Queensland and
NSW but it never materialized with a comfortable 3-15

to 1-2 victory for NSW. The larger NSW panel helped
their cause while many Queensland players were duel
plays playing Camogie also. The final on Saturday was a
close affair in the opening half but a game ending injury
to the WA full back upset the side’s balance just before
half time. NSW were able to take full advantage of this
and powered through the remainder with three early second half goals proving key. It ended NSW 5-10 to WA
0-10. So the NSW ladies make it four championships in
a row. In the Ladies Plate, Queensland defeated a gallant
South Australia.
CAMOGIE
Queensland, NSW and Victoria were the three teams in
Camogie with the former two the favourites. In the opener we had a repeat of last year’s final between Queensland
and NSW and the outcome of this one might decide where
the trophy was going this season. But unlike last year’s
epic double extra time match, NSW were far too strong
winning easily by 4-9 to 0-4. NSW then had another comfortable victory over Victoria with the final game of Day
1 seeing Queensland having too much for Victoria. The
results meant that NSW went straight into the final with
the other two to meet in the semi-final the following day.
Things didn’t go according to plan this time for Queens-

13