Another big Waterford and Kilkenny Clash in Croke Park

The Waterford Minor Hurling selectors have made three chances to the team which easily disposed of Antrim in the All-Ireland Quarter Final for this Sunday’s Semi Final clash with Kilkenny at Croke Park.

Sean Power and his selectors have re-introduced Colm Roche at centre forward after the Shamrock’s Club man missed the game with Antrim after he retired early in the Munster Final replay against Limerick after picking up an injury.

Modeligo’s Tom Devine also comes back into the team as does De La Salle’s Adam Farrell. Cormac Curran, Sam O’Neill and Paul O’Connor are the three that miss out on selection this weekend from the team that starts against Antrim.

Potentially this is one of the best Waterford sides ever put together at this level. Not since 1992 when Waterford were beaten by Galway have Waterford reached an All-Ireland final at this level but there is a growing feeling that the twenty-one year wait could be about to come to an end for a return to Jones’ Road for a September clash.

To date, Waterford has played remarkably well, but the side have won no silverware yet, so for now, let’s guard against a little complacency.

If Waterford is to get past this latest hurdle, they will have to put in their best performance yet this year.

There is some that are suggesting that this present Kilkenny team are not the best side ever to come from the North of the River Suir. However, believing this could be very dangerous as you seldom if ever see a poor or bad Kilkenny side, and Waterford will have it all to do to beat them and they will have to be fully respected.

A great deal of the Waterford panel will know what the Kilkenny panel are capable of doing after playing against them in the Colleges Championships this year, while the management team will also have had reports on the team and their capabilities drawn up.

Most if not all of this years Kilkenny panel will have played in the Leinster Senior ‘A’ Colleges League and Championship. Dungarvan Colleges to win the Dr Croke Cup had to beat Saint Kieran’s College in the semi final and Kilkenny CBS in the final. To get to these stages of the competition, the two Nore-side colleges had to get the better of Castlecomber College and Good Council College from New Ross which also contained a number of players from clubs in Kilkenny.

In addition to these four sides, players from the South Kilkenny area will be attending De La Salle College in Waterford City and Abbey Community School in Ferrybank and these players will also be know to many of the Waterford players.

Players like James Maher at wing back, Vincent Teehan who was a used sub in the Leinster final and Michael Kenny at full forward helped Saint Kieran’s reach this years All-Ireland semi final on the colleges front while Gary Kelly at centre forward, Kevin Kenny at wing forward, Luke Scanlon, Niall Mullins at centre field and Evan Cody full back were part of the Kilkenny CBS team that reached the All-Ireland Colleges final.

Other players that could well play a prominent part for Kilkenny this weekend include Alan Murphy a younger brother of senior Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin who hit ten points for the cats in the Leinster Final five weeks ago operating at corner forward, Liam Blanchfield at wing forward and goalkeeper Darren Brennan.

Kilkenny’s path to the semi finals this weekend is an impressive one and one which resembles Waterford’s.

The Cats began with a 3-20 to 1-9 win over Laois before loosing in a South-East derby against Wexford on a 3-7 to 1-10 score line. Kilkenny got back to winning ways with a comprehensive 7-16 to 1-9 win over Kildare and in the Leinster semi final they beat Dublin 0-17 to 2-7 to set up a Leinster Final and another clash with Laois.

In that final played five weeks ago, Kilkenny once again proved to be too strong, running out 1-18 to 0-8 winners. Alan Murphy on the day proved to be the main difference between the sides hitting ten points, while Michael Kenny hit the games only goal in the opening minutes of the game.

To qualify for this weekend’s All-Ireland semi final, Waterford have had to play all the sides competing in the Munster Championship which is a record.

Waterford began with a defeat against Tipperary at Walsh Park and followed it up with a win over Clare at the second time of asking at Fraher Field in a play off, after the original fixture was called off at latterly the last minute due to the strong winds which blew over must of West Waterford on the night the game was fixed for.

In the Munster semi final Waterford travelled to Cork to play Cork who had beaten Clare in the first round. Despite a poor start, Waterford got back into the game with a brace of early goals in the second half and it was only fitting that after sixty minutes that the two sides would end in stalemate.

For much of the extra twenty minutes little separated the sides, but Cork’s cause was not helped when they had a player sent off and with both sides tiring in the extra twenty minutes, Waterford with their extra man were able to press on to record a first ever underage win for Waterford on Cork soil.

In the Munster Final Waterford played Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds and for much of the game it was Waterford that looked the better of the two sides, but in the closing ten minutes of the game with a huge local support filing into the Ennis Road venue, Waterford took their eye off the ball and were caught out by Limerick and at the end of the sixty minutes, the two sides had to settle for a share of the spoils.

In the replay at Thurles, Waterford got off to a very poor start as they did in the game against Cork, but just like in that game, they were able to fight back and went into the lead and it looked as though Waterford were going to come out on top.

However, just as in the original fixture, Waterford appeared to take their eye off the ball in the closing minutes, when they appeared to have had one hand on the Cup, and had to settle for second best on the night.

Waterford had a very quick turn around and after playing Limerick on a Tuesday night, the Déise County was out again on the following Sunday when they played Antrim at Ashbourne.

In this game there was never any doubt as to what the final outcome of the game would be.

It’s hard to know which of the two sides is best placed going into this weekend’s game. Kilkenny have not played a competitive game since their Leinster Final five weeks ago, while Waterford has played three times since then and the players have also been in action in the local Minor Championship.

Sometimes a break can do you good, but it could also be argued that there is nothing like regular games and since Waterford played Cork in the Munster Semi final this is what they are getting. Nothing beats a competitive game. While Kilkenny just like Waterford would have been training hard over the past few weeks and will possibly have got in a challenge game or two, there is nothing like what was in effect (apart from the Munster Final) a competitive knockout game where all players would have to give it their all, and not maybe holding back somewhat as you see in non competitive games.

As stated to already, this present Waterford minor team is potentially the best ever put together, even more so than the one in the early to mid 1990’s which saw the likes of Paul Flynn, Tom Feeney, Dave Bennett, Ken McGrath, Eoin Murphy and Dan Shanahan come to the attention of many Waterford supporters.

This Sunday’s game is one that could well be close. Victory is going to go to the side that wants it most. Maybe we could see a Waterford game end in stalemate after sixty minutes for the third time this year.

Is Waterford going to win? I am hopeful that they will. I am not going to say more than that. I was told a few times in the last few years that a tip to win put in print by me is often a kiss of death. Read into that what you want, and maybe into tweets made by me recently if you follow mine.  

If Waterford does win on Sunday, lets all remain level headed after the game and in the run up to the clash with Limerick or Galway in September. In the past when he got excited about a penitential result, we were often left disappointed.