Melaugh’s weakened Derry head to Waterford

By Shaun Casey

INJURY ravaged Derry have experienced a pretty difficult start to their All-Ireland campaign and things could get tougher for Eamon Melaugh and his team as they hit the road this weekend and take on Waterford.

The Oakleaf County have suffered back-to-back hammerings at the hands of Galway and Kilkenny in recent weeks.

Kilkenny proved too strong on the opening day with a 3-26 to 0-9 triumph while Galway were 4-25 to 0-5 winners last weekend.

Both of those ties were on home soil in Owenbeg, but Melaugh’s girls are away from home on Saturday as they travel to a Waterford side that opened their account with a win last weekend, beating Kilkenny by seven in their first-ever championship win over the Cats.

“It hasn’t been great, and preparations haven’t been good either because we’re plagued with injuries at the minute,” said Melaugh ahead of their round three tussle with their Munster foes.

“We have six girls out at the minute with broken fingers and ankle problems, and it’s just been a complete nightmare, especially when you’re going up against the likes of Kilkenny and Galway and now Waterford.”

Melaugh rues the fact that he can’t call upon his best side when facing the top teams in the country, especially with Derry trying to find their feet at this level following their All-Ireland Intermediate success in 2023.

“You need everybody and just one thing we don’t have at the minute is everybody, which is unfortunate.

“You need your full team to give you some chance at all and it’s a learning curve for myself and the rest of the management team,” added Melaugh in his first season in charge.

“We’re seeing the way all the other teams are set up and that top level, I’m being taken aback by how professional they are compared to us, a second division team.

“We’re going up against teams that have maybe 15 people in their management team.”

On the Waterford contest this weekend, Melaugh continued: “It’s very, very tough and we’re down to our bare bones. We’re going to Waterford, and I think we have three subs, that’s what we’re down to at the minute.

“We have those injuries, and we don’t have a massive panel anyway so if you take six girls out of that, you’re down to 18 or 19 players and we have a couple away as well but you just have to try and get on with it.”