LAUREN McGREGOR is counting down to Waterford’s next game — and why not after it was 3-2, won last time out?
Her outstanding haul of three goals and two points propelled the Déise towards a 6-15 to 0-6 triumph over Tyrone in Aghyaran last weekend.
Having also beaten newly promoted Kildare and drawn with Dublin — while falling by just three points to All-Ireland holders Kerry and one to recent back-to-back Brendan Martin Cup champions Meath — they are proving a real handful for their Lidl NFL Division 1 opponents.
But with their opening five games of the year played in the space of just six weeks, they now have an extended break before facing in-form league holders Armagh on home soil on March 22.
After Sunday’s rout of the Red Hands, McGregor is counting down the days.
She said: “We definitely did believe that performance was there for us and it was just waiting to come.
“We were slow to start against Meath and they were on top of us at half-time.
“We just had to claw it back but we didn’t get enough in the end.
“The same against Dublin. We went ahead but we just couldn’t finish out the game. There was definitely more in us.
“We haven’t really been getting goals the last few games.
“We took our chances on Sunday and hopefully we can just keep going on from there now.”
While she would love to act now on the momentum of the win in Tyrone, several members of the Waterford squad are set to be in college action over the next week or so.
And McGregor admits they will benefit from having a longer lead-in to the Orchard’s visit.
She added: “It will do us the world of good, especially to get ready for the game against Armagh.
“They look brilliant at the moment. They’re very good so it will be a good challenge for us. We’re looking forward to playing them.
“We’ll get this weekend off and just give girls a bit of a break from travelling as well. But we’ll be back then the Tuesday night.
“Next weekend the girls are playing with the college. We’ll be missing a good few of them for the weekend but there will be plenty of us there to keep something going over that weekend.”
LONG ROAD
McGregor first joined the Waterford panel while still a teenager in 2014.
She had taken a break by the time of their TG4 All-Ireland intermediate success the following year but has played a big role for much of their decade in the Championship’s top tier.
In 2022, she returned from another break of two years — brought on by the Covid pandemic — and across 33 appearances in the Lidl NFL and TG4 All-Ireland Championship in the past three years, she has amassed an outstanding 21 goals and 53 points.
All but two of those outings were starts, something which has helped restore her love of the game.
She said: “I wasn’t really enjoying it at the time when it was coming into Covid.
“When I was younger, it’s hard to make an impact when you’re only coming on for a few minutes at the end of games.
“At the end of the day, if you’re scoring you’ll stay in the team, but it’s about the girls all around you as well.
“It’s to help the team out but it is great to be able to get on the end of the chances.”
