Waterford Could Have It All To Do in Galway

Something is telling me all week that one of the teams that competed in Division One ‘A’ of this year’s National Hurling League will bow out of the competition this weekend.

To see one of the sides bow out would be nothing new, as it has happened a number of times in recent years. After all, the last two winners come May are the side are the side that have come top in Division One ‘B’, so Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford side are bound to go into this weekend’s round of games in a very confident mood. But something that might not be in their favour is that they must play Kilkenny, albeit a Kilkenny side that have somewhat being misfiring so far this is.

Another side that will feel confident of pulling off a win this weekend must be Galway. The last two winners of the league in addition to being the side that won Division One ‘B’ is that they were the side that were relegated from Division One ‘A’ the previous season, so the tribesmen will be hoping that they can repeat what Waterford and Clare have done in the last two years.

It is possibly fair to say that the only Division One ‘A’ side that are sure to win this weekend are Tipperary who play an Offlay side who only avoided a relegation play off in Division One ‘B’ by virtue of having a better score difference than Kerry and Laois. Cork the other Division One ‘A’ side will also know that they will not have things so easy either as they are facing a Limerick side who could well be someone of a force in the coming years, thanks to some great work done in winning Munster Championship and Munster Colleges Championships in recent years.

League meetings between Waterford and Galway have tended to go one way or the other in recent years with often little between the sides.

Galway will see having won the toss to have home advantage as a plus to them. But Waterford I am sure will travel to the City of the Tribes with confidence as they have not lost on their travels this year in the league so far, beating Kilkenny, Dublin and Clare last weekend in a winner takes all game.

Waterford won the league in 2015 and were only denied back to back titles for the first time last year when they lost out to Clare after a replay in Thurles. With the past few years Derek McGrath has tended not to indulge in what some would call shadow boxing when they came to within sight of silverware, but some are wondering about this game.

Waterford has made a raft of changes for this weekend’s game over Galway from the side that beat Clare last weekend.

It’s fair to say that everyone expected some changes this weekend. Barry Coughlan was one player that needed replacing this weekend after he picked up a serious injury in added time last weekend, one that is expected to keep him out of the game for a few weeks if not months.

And while it was known that there was other niggling injuries within the panel for this game, few expected so many changes to be made.

I am sure when some heard the Waterford team to start on Friday evening, some out have asked was the team issued from some remote spot of Eastern Europe where the sender had forgotten about the time difference, and if it was an early April Fool’s Day Joke.

There was no Stephen O’Keeffe, Barry Coughlan, Stephen Daniels, Austin Gleeson, Shane Bennett, Michael Walsh, Pauric Mahony, Brian O’Halloran and Patrick Curran from the side that did well got get a rare result in Ennis last weekend.

But we must give Derek McGrath and his selectors credit. Since he came into the Waterford job we have hardly seen a dummy team issued and the fifteen that were named on a Friday evening were the fifteen that took to the field on the Saturday evening or Sunday, but the positions were not often the same, so few should have any concerns about an April Fool’s Day Joke with the team named on Friday evening.

We are told a lot about Waterford’s strength in reserve, something that Waterford have often struggled with in recent years. Waterford have often had twelve, thirteen or fourteen players that would walk onto most inter county panels but often struggled when it came to replacements when the need arose.

With so many changes made to the team, be they be forced or otherwise on Sunday afternoon we will see what Waterford really have in reserve.

Galway are a side that you never know what to expect from. When they are good, they can be very good, but when they are a side that I will leave it up to you to fill in how you could describe them.

Following the naming of the Waterford team last night, the home side will go into the game as the favourites.  They will be giving the game their best shot and will know that a good league campaign could well prove to be a good thing at their back going into the Leinster Championship in a few weeks’ time.

The Tribesmen have injury doubts with the Saint Thomas’ duo of Conor Cooney and David Burke and it remains to be seen what part if any that this duo will play.

Cooney was a late withdrawal from last weekend’s win over Limerick and during the week team manager Micheál Donoghue admitted that it would be touch and go as to whether the attacker would be recover in time for this weekend’s clash while Burke picked up a thumb injury in the win over Limerick and reports coming from Galway suggest that he is being closely monitored.

There could be some good news however for Galway going into this game as Daithí Burke and Conor Whelan are reported to be in contention having missed the win over Limerick. Thomas Monaghan, Niall Burke and Shane Moloney came on in that win over Limerick last year and in doing so impressed and will hope to have done enough to win a place in the team from the off this time around or at worse to get some more game time, this time on home soil.

With due respect to the likes of Offaly, Laois and Kerry this game will represent a big step up in standard Galway have played against this year.

Two years ago it did Waterford no harm playing opposition like this as they went on to win the league and Galway will feel that they can do likewise this year.

Some are suggesting that a smaller than usual Waterford support is going to travel to Galway for this game, as many try and budget things having travelled to Ennis last weekend.

Galway on the other hand could well have a large support inside the ground as their Senior Footballers are playing Kildare in the final round of games in the football league before this game.

Galway may well prove to be favourites on the day, and there will be many expecting them to advance to the penultimate round of games in two weeks’ time, but first they will have to overcome the challenge of Waterford, even an understrength Waterford side, but one that those selected to play will be showing that they are good enough to stake a place in the team on a more regular basis.