Five inter county teams are in action this weekend.

The busy weekends for the G.A.A. in Waterford just keep on coming as this coming weekend we see more than our fair share of inter county teams take to the field in both hurling and football in league and championship action.

For those looking forward to an inter county double header involving both the senior hurling and football teams in the league at Walsh Park they were left disappointed as from early in the week it became very apparent that such a game would not be taking place due to the amount of rain that fell over the past number of days.

The footballers will not play their game at the WIT Campus in Carriganore where Offaly provide the opposition.

Both of these sides have seen their luck turn in the last few weeks, after struggling somewhat to beat London in Ruislip in the first round of games, Offaly lost to both Limerick and Clare in their next two games but returned to winning games in recent weeks with wins over Leitrim and Carlow and if they were to put a third win in a row together this weekend, they would be in prime position to take one of the two promotion places available in the group.

The visitors make one change to their team for this weekends game. Ken Casey makes his first start of the year against Waterford and is selected at full forward. The Saint Bridget’s Club man had a spell on the sideline owing to an injury but came in as a sub against Carlow last weekend.

He made a telling impact coming on in that game setting up Sean Pender for Offaly’s first goal of the game just short of the hour mark and also kicked a point.

Eoin Rigney misses out for Offaly this weekend, but the management team have made a number of switches to their starting line up.

Richie Dalton moves from centre field to centre forward while Brian Connor moves from full forward to the number eleven shirt. Michael Brazil who was named at Centre Field against Carlow moves to the wing back position, Ruairi Allen moves from left corner forward to left half forward while Willie Mulhall moves in the opposite direction.

Waterford too make changes for this weekend.

Brian Wall who came on for Shane Aherne with a quarter for an hour to go in Carrick-on-Shannon, starts this weekend, and is named at centre back replacing Shane Briggs. John Hurney also comes back into the defensive sextet in place of Tadhg Ó hUallacháin. The Abbeyside/Ballinacourty club man last weekend started on the bench but came in for Darren Guiry ten minutes into the second half.  There is one change in the forwards where Paul Whyte misses out and is replaced by Patrick Hurney who is named to start at centre forward.

Waterford began this years league in fine form with wins over Clare and Tipperary but subsequent defeats to Limerick, London and Leitrim have made it very difficult for Waterford to win one of the two available promotion places in Division four, but Niall Carew’s charges are not mathematically out of the league as wins in their remaining games and for results to go their way in other games could mean that promotion is still achievable.

Meanwhile, in the National Hurling league, Tipperary have made six changes to their team to play Waterford in Walsh Park.

The Munster champions began their league campaign with a crushing defeat to Cork in Pairc Uí Rinn but have since followed it up with moral boosting wins over Kilkenny and Galway and will travel to Walsh Park in a confident mood and will know that if they were to win they could well secure their place in the semi finals ahead of their meeting in the last round of games against Clare.

The Premier men welcome Brendan Cummins, Donagh Maher, Thomas Stapleton, Brian O’Meara, Noel McGrath and Adrian Ryan into the team to play at Walsh Park with Darren Gleeson, Paddy Stapleton, Conor O’Mahony, Brendan Maher, John O’Brien and John O’Dwyer all making way.

The home side also make changes for this game. Surprisingly, Ian O’Regan starts in goals in place of Stephen O’Keeffe. The Ballygunner Club man may have made mistakes last time out against Kilkenny and while he may have received some very harsh criticism from nameless people on the different social network sites, he had been doing well up to this point.

The management team have given the defensive sextet another vote of confidence meaning that Shane Fives, Liam Lawlor, Stephen Daniels, Jamie Nagle, Michael Walsh and Kevin Moran are set to continue which has to be a good thing with the championship coming closer each passing week that we have a settled unit in these positions.

In the middle of the field, Shane O’Sullivan and Paudie Prendergast are set to continue after impressing against Kilkenny, while in attack there are two changes, as Maurice Shanahan and Jamie Barron make their first starts in this years league with Pauric Mahony and Brian O’Sullivan the players to drop out.

Waterford has a number of women’s teams in action as well this weekend. After a couple of weeks break, the Intermediate Ladies make the trip north for the second successive game as they make the long trip to Kilawley to play Fermanagh. Waterford have not had the best of luck in the league to date but last time out did manage a draw against  Cavan and will look to build on that result this weekend.

Within the hour, Waterford’s under 14 Ladies Football team take on Tipperary in Fethard. They started the year with a defeat to Limerick at Stradbally but last week they had a 3-7 to 2-5 win over Clare at Fraher Field and will be hoping to put back to back wins together this weekend.

On Sunday, Waterford’s Minor Camogie team take on Dublin in Fraher Field. Waterford were to play Kerry in the Munster ‘B’ Final at Buttervant last weekend but were awarded a Walk over by the ladies from the Kingdom. Dublin however, do head into this game with some championship action under their belts this year as they played Offaly in the championship at the end of February but they suffered a narrow 4-5 to 2-10 defeat. A win for Waterford therefore is important in this game if the side are to advance to the next phase of the competition.

The bad weather however has taken its toll on this weekends action, as the All-Ireland Colleges semi final between Dungarvan Colleges and St Kieran’s College from Kilkenny fixed for Carriganore today has fallen by the way side and has been re-fixed for this coming Tuesday at 2pm with the game again fixed for Carriganore.

Fixtures for Sunday:
 

All-Ireland ‘B’ Camogie Fixture                       Waterford V Dublin in Fraher Field at 2pm

Ladies National Football League Fixture        Fermanagh V Waterford in Kilawley at 2pm

National Football League Fixture -                 Waterford V Offaly in Carriganore at 12-45pm

National Hurling League Fixture -                   Waterford V Tipperary in Walsh Park at 2-30pm