It's going to be tough for Waterford in Killarney.

Waterford Senior Footballers travel to the Lion’s Den on Saturday evening when  they take on Kerry in the semi final stages of this years Munster Championship at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.

Waterford go into this game as the underdogs. The home side are going to be at very short odds to win, and it is hard not to see in advance of this game that the bookies have got things wrong.

However, while Waterford may go into the game as the rank outsiders, they need not to look too far back for some inspiration, and hope that history will repeat itself and maybe the game could have a different outcome than the one expected.

It’s only a few short weeks that John Kiely and his selectors brought their minor team to the same venue to play Kerry at the same stage of that competition.

Waterford on that night was written off before the game began.

Back in 2002, ahead of the Munster Senior Hurling Final, the former Tipperary Senior Hurler and Senior Hurling manager, Michael ‘Babs’ Keating famously said that Waterford would be going home at half time in their meeting against Tipperary.

What more motivation does a side need going into a game? Any manager in the dressing room need not have had to say much to his players going out onto the field. He would only have to ask them was the person making such statements right and if they were not, to go out and shown them why they were not right.

While nobody would suggest that this game is going to be over at the break, most would agree that for Waterford it is going to be a very difficult task.

However, Waterford has a tendency to love a challenge. The bookies feel that the home side are no match for Niall Carew’s visiting side. However, wouldn’t it be great to see Waterford make a real fight of it and make Kerry feel that they are in a game for much of the seventy minutes?

Anyone that follows this blog will know that I have a belief that the Munster Council should look at the Inter County Football Championships within the county.

I have suggested that the four so called weaker counties should play in a round robin league with two of the four sides then advancing to the semi finals along with Cork and Kerry and that for the semi finals, there should be an open draw, meaning that the Munster Final need not necessarily be a Cork/Kerry affair every year.

If this was to be done, it would ensure that what ever two sides did advance to the semi finals did not go into the game cold (Championship game wise) as Waterford and Clare are doing this weekend.

This line of thought will not go down well with everyone. There is some that will argue to be the best or at least to be counted amongst them you have to play the best. But you could in turn ask these people what is gone out of suffering heavy defeats when you do play sides that are regarded the best.

For example, great work was done in Tipperary to promote football in the last number of years, and it has paid off to a degree with success coming the way of the Premier County at Minor and Under 21 levels.

But last weekends defeat to Kerry could have a slightly negative effect to football in the county. It will have hurt some to a degree. The draw for the first round of the All-Ireland Qualifiers is to come. What if Tipperary were drawn to play Tyrone in their opening round game in the qualifiers and were to suffer another defeat like the one against Kerry last weekend. Does that really help football in the county?

However for now, we have the championship we have and it cannot be changed for this year anyway.

Waterford has to go to Killarney for the game.

We have seen Waterford put up good performances in the past when least expected and I have no doubt that they will again in the future.

Waterford will find it tough to win in Kerry’s own back yard, but it would be great to see the side put in a fighting performance.

The Kerry selectors have given a vote of confidence to the side that beat Tipperary last weekend.

Last weekend, I must admit I thought that Tipperary would put it up to Kerry even if they would not win the game, but in the end the home side proved far too good for the visitors.

They will be looking to start off where they left off in that game.

They have some very good players within their set up.

Players like Tomás and Marc Ó Sé, Aidan O’Mahony and Killian Young in their backs will need no introduction to fans of Gaelic Football.

At the other end of the field they also have players of the highest quality. Their half forward line of Paul Galvin, Colm Cooper and Donnacha Walsh looks very strong. All three know where the posts are and how to cause plenty of trouble for their opponents.

Inside them the threeo of Declan O’Sullivan, Kieran Donaghy and James O’Donoghue who finished as top scorer last week against Tipperary with 1-3 to his name also will cause trouble.

However, Waterford have named a strong side, even if I have a feeling that the fifteen that Niall Carew has named will not line out as selected, and maybe we might even see changes made to the starting fifteen named before the game.

Stephen Enright is the best goal keeper in the county with the past number of years. He has played on and off in the league over the past few years, but made the position his own this year and its now great to see him get his first Munster Championship start.

The full back line of Tadhg Ó hUallachain, Niall Walsh and Thomas O’Gorman looks strong. I would have preferred to see the Nire man play in the middle and we might just see it yet. However, it has to be remembered that he has not played any meaningful football since he played in last years County Final against Stradbally and it has to be seen how match fit he actually is.

Waterford over the past few years always had a strong half back line and this game is no different. Shane Briggs is selected at centre back and is set to be flanked by Conor Phelan and John Hurney if we are to believe the team that is named.

In the middle of the field, Tommy Prendergast and Maurice O’Gorman will give it their all.

In the half forward line Tony Grey is named at wing forward which is a little bit of a surprise. He is an outstanding half back and loves to break forward and pop up with a score or two every so often.

He did well in the league, and scored in a number of games. Maybe Niall Carew and his selectors see his pace as something that will bother Kerry this Saturday evening and that is why they have named him where they have.

Coincidently, the whole of the half forward line comes from the county champions. Shane Ahearne is named at centre forward. His ability doe not have to be spelt out, and if he was to move to the middle of the field for a while in this game it would not be a shock to most. Andy Doyle makes up the half forward line. He is a very experienced player. He is relatively new to this standard of football but won’t let the side down.

There is plenty of potential in the Waterford full forward line. In the League, Kerry found the tough going a lot of the time and conceded more than their usual quota of scores.

If Waterford can expose any weaknesses that are to be found in the Kerry full back line, then Paul Whyte, Gary Hurney and Robert Ahearne could finish the game with good tallies to their name on the score sheet.

This is going to be a tough game for Waterford. There can be no papering over the cracks and saying other wise. When the sides last met in the championship at Fraher Field back in 2009, Kerry came out on top on a 2-15 to 0-4 score line.

Kerry will be looking to put a similar tally up this time. Waterford will be looking to put more on the score board this time around, and they are capable of doing so.

Like most, I don’t expect Waterford to win here, but would expect to see a creditable performance. Waterford will more than likely enter the qualifiers at the second round of games (teams beaten before the provincial semi finals play in the first round of games).

If Waterford were to get a favourable draw in the qualifiers and were to pull off a win, it would meet with the expectations of many for the team for the year and look to build on it going into the future.