Waterford and Cork to renew rivalry

Down the years, Waterford have been on the wrong end of some bad defeats against Cork.

A Number of classic encounters, most in the last two decades have been fought out and in our fair share of these games, Waterford have emerged as the victors.

Its interesting to note that since 1991, in Championship Hurling, the there has been never no more than six points to separate the sides which shows how close the two sides have come from the days in the early years in the 80’s when the sides clashed in successive Munster Finals and when Waterford were on the end of two heavy defeats.

This Sunday, the two sides clash again in Thurles and for the victors, the prize is a place in the semi finals of this years All-Ireland Championship against Galway in mid August while the losers on Sunday will have to wait till January when the Munster Council plays the Waterford Crystal Trophy for its next competitive game.

Not for the first time in recent years, Waterford will go into a game as the underdogs, but this is something that will not phase Waterford too much as we all know that when Waterford are the underdogs, the Déise often plays its best hurling and pulls off that the minority were predicting.

When Michael Ryan was appointed as Waterford manager in succession to Davy Fitzgerald last October, its fair to say that the appointment was not met with universal approvement.  In facts its fair to say that even in the early months of 2012, most did not agree with the appointment made by the County Board and it was not until Waterford recorded a rare win in Galway in the National League that most Waterford supporters began to accept the appointment.

A win over Clare in the Munster Championship and a spirited display against Tipperary in the Munster Final has won a few of the doubters over and if Waterford were to win a place in the All-Ireland semi finals this weekend, its possibly fair to say that even more of the doubters will be won over.

As the year has progressed, Waterford under Michael Ryan and his present selectors Sean Cullinane and Ken McGrath have improved game by game. Waterford have returned to a style of play that we got accustomed to see Waterford play for much of the past decade, and it appears that many of the players are now training and playing with a smile on their face once again.

Heading into this weekends round of games, both sides have changes made to the side they started two weeks ago.

Cork’s Jimmy Barry-Murphy is not happy with a defence that has leaked a large amount of scores in this years championship. Mindful of the treat that the Waterford attack is likely to be on Sunday, the rebels have made three changes to the team that played Wexford recently and two of these changes are in defence.

Stephen McDonnell has been named at full back against Waterford on Sunday. This will be the first time he has played in the championship for Cork this year and they also bring in the very experienced Seán Óg Ó hAilpin to curb the threat that the Waterford attack could be on the Rebels goal.

Cork’s third chance sees Daniel Kearney come in to play in the middle of the field, an area where Waterford have been strong in their two previous championship games this year.

Michael Ryan and his selectors have also made changes and as expected they have kept them to a minimum. Gavin O’Brien had a poor game last time out against Tipperary and also failed to impress with the under 21’s in their recent defeat against Clare has been left out and Tallow’s Thomas Ryan comes in to replace him.

The Tallow man has been part of the Déise Panel for the past few years but apart from coming on as a sub in a number of games, has got little opportunity to show what he can do.

He received some harsh reviews of his performance after coming on against Clare earlier in the summer. There is no doubting his ability and not that he is getting a place in the starting team he will be keen to impress and with his lightening pace and with an eye for the posts, he could well cause all sorts of problems to the Cork defence on Sunday.

Sunday’s game may not go down as one of the classics that we have seen fought out between the two sides in recent years, but it is expected to be close. If after seventy minutes the sides could not be separated, it would not be a major surprise and neither would it be a surprise if the sides had to re-meet in the days that follow this game.

However, despite the fact Waterford will go into this game that Waterford will go into the game as the underdog, I expect them to come out on top.