Waterford are good enough to prove the Bookies right

Waterford has played some big hurling games this year. But this Sunday’s game with Dublin is the biggest of the lot.

A win in Thurles would see Derek McGrath’s charges head to Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi final at which point they would be just seventy minutes from a first All-Ireland Final since 2008.

Waterford go into the game as the favourites to win the game and advance to a meeting with Kilkenny in the semi finals.

The tag of favourites around the neck of any Waterford team does not always sit well and we have to guard against what the bookies are telling us.

The two sides are in good form this year. Dublin reached the League Semi finals where they were unlucky to loose to Cork who staged a great fight back after they looked to be out of contention at the break.

Waterford as we all know won Division 1B, reached and won the league final and contested a Munster Final only two weeks ago.

All this after the two sides finished bottom and one from bottom of Division 1A of last years league, when the two fought out a relegation play off, a game that Waterford lost and it looked as if Dublin after Cork’s promotion twelve months ago would follow Waterford down to Division 1B where the two could well remain for a few years as the likes of Wexford and Limerick were most fancied to win promotion this year.

Why all the Bookies are making Waterford the favourites is hard to work out. Are they doing so on the outcome of one or two games this year?

Yes, Dublin may have went out of the Leinster Championship at the quarter final stages of the competition, after a replay but they have recovered well from that loss.

Waterford were going well all year up to the Munster Final loss to Tipperary. That defeat was followed up with a defeat for the county under 21 team with a sizeable number of seniors on the panel against Clare in the Munster semi final. The two defeats will have hurt the side somewhat mentally, and a great deal of work will have had to be done to restore any loss of confidence in the players minds in the last week or so.

Dublin on the other hand since loosing to Galway have had time to recover. They had an excellent win over Laois (4-17 to 0-19) in the first round of the qualifiers and just two weeks ago they had another good win over Limerick, a side that many felt were unlucky not to have contested last years all-Ireland Final, meaning that confidence will be high going into this weekends game, even if there appeared to be a little bit of friction of late resulting in Michael Carton leaving the panel after the win over Laois.

Let no one be in any doubt as to how strong Dublin can be this weekend. Within their ranks they have some excellent players in the likes of goalkeeper Gary Maguire, Paul Schutte, Liam Rushe, Johnny McCaffrey, Ryan O’Dwyer, Danny Sutcliffe, Conal Keaney, Paul Ryan, Mark Schutte and of course Dotsy O’Callaghan.

There is some that are suggesting that Derek McGrath and his selectors should make changes from the Munster Final loss to Tipperary for this weekend’s game, and I believe changes will be made, but they will be kept to the minimum.

Its hard to see Stephen O’Keeffe not playing between the posts. Also Shane Fives, Barry Coughlan, Noel Connors, Tadhg Bourke and Philip Mahony will be in the back line.

There is some that feel Austin Gleeson should be moved to attack and that his place at wing back should be taken by Darragh Fives after he returned to the inter county scene late on in the defeat to Tipperary.

For what its worth, I believe if a thing is not broken, then don’t try and fix it. For me, the form of the half back line this year is key to Waterford’s success and breaking it up for the sake of it could mean a change in the side’s fortunes.

There is some that debate as to whether the Mount Sion man like Ken McGrath and another former Waterford captain Michael Walsh is a better back or forward. To me the two Mount Sion men are best placed in the half back line with the Stradbally man paced further up the field.

In the middle of the field Jamie Barron is untouchable this year and he should be joined there by the teams captain Kevin Moran.

In attack there may well be changes. The six starting forwards in the Munster Final shared just four points between them from play and simply put that really is not good enough in seventy minutes of hurling.

Maybe this weekend is a time to change how things are done in attack. All along players were brought back to defend when the need arise and then to counter attack. The system is one that does not go down well with purest but whether a person likes it or not, you have to stand up and admit that it works.

With one man on his own for periods of the game in the full forward line is putting pressure on him.

Against Dublin, should Waterford go with a more traditional formation, then Dublin could very well be there for the taking.

There is some that will argue that there is a weakness in their full back line and if it can be exploited as Galway did, Dublin could be on the wrong end of a heavy defeat.

Paul Schutte is an excellent defender, but there might be weaknesses at this level of hurling in Niall Corcoran and Cian O’Callaghan and if Waterford can exploit this, then Waterford can win as handsomely as Galway did against Dublin a few weeks back.

To try and cause the maximum trouble to the Dublin full back line it was to be decided as to go with two big men in the inside forward line or one big man and two lively players in the corners picking up on the breaks.

Could Waterford go with Maurice Shanahan and Stephen Bennett in the inside forward line or go with just one of them and have players like Brian O’Halloran, Colin Dunford or Patrick Curran in the corners.

Michael Walsh will start at centre forward and if Waterford were to go with one big man in the full forward line the other could well start on one wing with possibly Shane Bennett and Jake Dillon fighting it out to start on the other wing or even placing Colin Dunford there.

Whatever fifteen Derek McGrath and his selectors put out to do battle on Sunday against Dublin in Thurles, the ability is there for the side to win and advance to an All-Ireland semi final against Kilkenny, a game that could be a little easier to win than of the sides were to meet in the final.

And if that was to happen its worth remembering that Waterford know they can beat both Cork and Tipperary and also that in Senior Championship hurling Waterford have never lost to Galway which would mean one thing, but we wont think about that just yet. Let’s just get Dublin first.