Will it be a case of two out of three ain’t bad for Armagh, or will it be a case of third time lucky for Waterford

The importance of Sunday’s All-Ireland Intermediate Final to both Armagh and Waterford cannot be under estimated, as both sides see it as the chance to head back to where they rightfully belong, playing against the leading teams in the country on a regular basis.

Waterford throughout the 90’s were the undisputed Kings or should that be Queens of Ladies Football. They managed to knock what was a fine Kerry team off their pedestal. The Kingdom had won eight All-Ireland Finals in a row when Waterford beat them in the 1991 Munster Final, a victory that set them up to win all but one of the remaining provincial finals in that decade and also managing to add five All-Ireland titles to its roll of honour as well as five National League titles up to 2002, five Minor All-Irelands were won in a decade, a similar amount of under 14 titles were won in the same period and one Under 14 All-Ireland was won towards the end of Waterford’s period of dominance.

Armagh have never enjoyed the same success as Waterford have in the past, however they are no strangers to Croke Park. The Orchard County won the Junior All-Ireland final as recent as 2005 and twelve months later they were back in Croke Park on All-Ireland Final day where they played Cork in the senior decider but had to settle for second best to what was a fine Cork team.

Since winning the Junior All-Ireland in 2005 they have played in the senior grade and only came down to the intermediate grade at the end of 2011 and still contain within their panel some of the team that played in both 2005 and 2006 in Croke Park.

Armagh Manager James Daly heads into Sunday’s game with Waterford firmly believing that his side will win and that with the work rate his charges have put in all year, that they deserve to go back up to the senior grade at the first time of asking.

Last year Armagh won four of the fourteen games that they played and their county board made the brave call to drop down a grade in 2012, one which the team manager fully supported.

The drop allowed Daly to bring some of the minors that he had previously worked with into the panel and some of the stalwarts from the teams in the mid naughty’s also stayed on which created a nice blend of youth and experience in the team.

If James Daly has the belief his side can win in Croke Park on Sunday, so too does his counterpart in Waterford, Pat O’Brien. After all anything else would be defeatist.  

Waterford have not played for some years now and many are now of the belief that now is the time to make the step back up.

Waterford has a young team. The average age of the 26 players in the panel is just under 22. The side have some considerable experience, as many of those travelling to Croke Park on Saturday afternoon were part of the Waterford team that narrowly lost to Donegal in the final two years ago in the same grade.

The Abbeyside club man has praised his predecessors Jason Lynch and Mike Guiry. We had to blood a lot of young players, even the last couple of years, the fellas who were there before me had to bring a lot of players on. At this stage, they’re coming right and there’s a lot of experience there too.”

In his first year in charge, Pat O’Brien can be very happy with what has been achieved to day. “When we started” he says, “we knew that we had a strong panel and our main objective starting out was to do well in the league. We did that and then we won the Munster championship for the fourth time in a row. We set out our stall then in the All-Ireland championship.”

Both sides will know each other quite well. They have already met twice this year. In their first game in the championship the game ended in a draw and when they re-met to see which would top the group, it was the northern side that came out on top on a 4-14 to 2-12 scoreline.

This suggests that Sunday’s game could be a close one. Armagh will go into the game as the favourites and rightly so. They have played at the higher level more recently that Waterford have and they also have the better record of the two sides in clashes between them this year.

Come 3-30pm or so on Sunday afternoon, will it be a case of two out of three ain’t bad for Armagh, or will it be a case of third time lucky for Waterford, night now we can’t tell.

One thing we can possibly tell right now is that while Waterford will be the underdogs, Armagh cannot afford to go into the game too confident. What has happened in recent games between the two will count for nothing. Just ask Galway. After a win and a draw against Kilkenny earlier this year, many were saying going into last weekend’s All-Ireland Hurling Final replay that 2012 was going to be the Tribe’s Men year, and we all know now what happened to them.