Waterford Should Have Too Much For Offaly

I must learn to do the lotto on a much more regular basis than I do.

After Waterford lost to Cork recently in the Munster Semi Final against Cork in Thurles, I put a tweet on my Facebook and Twitter pages saying the best draw Waterford could get in the All-Ireland qualifiers would be to play Offaly and to get them at Walsh Park.

When the draw for this weekend’s All-Ireland Qualifiers was made on Morning Ireland on Monday morning last, Derek McGrath’s Waterford side were pitted against Kevin Ryan’s Offaly side as I had hoped, but not in Walsh Park as would be nice but at O’Connor Park in Tullamore.

Twenty five years ago this year, the two counties clashed in the All-Ireland Under 21 Final at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, where Tony Mansfield’s side needed two attempts before they won the Counties first title at this grade.

In the few years that followed it was Offaly however that proved to be the more successful of the two sides, showing that success at underage level does not always guarantee success at Adult level, as they went on to win the All-Ireland Senior Final six years later beating Kilkenny in the final after the Cats had beaten Waterford in the semi finals. Waterford in that same year were beaten in the Munster Final against Clare after a never to be forgotten replay and also lost the League Final that same year against Cork, both games being played at Thurles.

Since then however, the fortunes of both counties have turned full circle.

Waterford have won four Munster Finals and were beaten in a number of other provincial finals and have reached their quota of All-Ireland semi finals and even one final, and along the way have won two National League titles and contested two other finals, and have tasted success on the underage and colleges circuits.

Offaly however have fallen well back in Leinster to a dominant Kilkenny side, while Dublin, Wexford and Galway would also be regarded as superior sides to Offaly at this moment in time.

While Michael Ryan’s Westmeath side are an improving side, few outside of the midlands county would have expected them to beat Offaly in the Championship this year. Offaly for their part did just enough to beat them and also did just enough to secure their place in Division 1B of the league next year, beating Kerry in their last league game, a result that won them a place in the quarter finals where they played and not surprisingly lost out to All-Ireland Champions Tipperary.

In the Leinster Semi Final again when they came up against one of the stronger counties in the game – Galway they found the going tough once more and in the end the Tribesmen ran out convincing winners.

Both Waterford and Offaly met recently in a challenge game to mark the re-opening of the Ballysaggart Club Grounds after they were developed and on that night Derek McGrath’s side ran out winners rather easily.

While what happens in games like this should not be over analysed as many players are minding themselves for bigger games and are often merely going through the motions, and fridge players as well as those that are coming back from injury are given game time, Offaly on the night when it comes to the bigger picture will have got more from the game on the night.

While defeated last time out against Cork, Derek McGrath and his management team are not likely to do too much tinkering with the team for this weekend’s game, even if some are suggesting that four or five changes have to be made in personnel to the starting team.

We know that there will be at least one change however as Stephen Bennett is suspended for this game as a result of the ban he picked after being caught on camera interfering with a helmet which was not spotted by the officials on the day.

Who takes his place in the team right now we do not know.

Players like Thomas Ryan, Brian O’Halloran, Jake Dillon and Patrick Curran will all feel that they could have big shouts to replace the Ballysaggart man. Another player that could well be given the nod is Darragh Fives.

Derek McGrath as we all know favours an defensive game and could well name the Tourin man in attack for this game but get him to drop back into defence after the throw in.

The positioning of Austin Gleeson is going to be interesting. He did not have the best of games by his usual high standards against Cork when he was not playing in his usual central position, and so it will be interesting to see will he be in the middle this time, as opposed to playing against one of the sidelines.

There are many that argue that the Mount Sion man should start at Centre Forward, but I have always argued that like his fellow Mount Sion Club man Ken McGrath his best position is at Centre Back, a position in which we must not forget that he has won two All-Ireland and one Munster Medals.

   Maurice Shanahan in the eyes of many is isolated too much for too often in a one or two man inside forward line and some are quick to knock the talented Lismore man when he don’t get the score tallies that he is capable of getting.

If he is to play at Full Forward or anywhere in the inside forward line, he will need support. (I would have him at centre forward). If he is in a three man Full Forward line players with speed like Brian O’Halloran and Thomas Ryan would benefit a lot feeding off any ball the big Lismore man was to break to them, but if Waterford were to go with a two man inside forward line, then maybe another big man, such as DJ Foran might be the way to go when playing against a three man full back line and maybe with a sweeper of two playing in front of them.

This is a game Waterford should win. The problem is however it could well be a no win situation game for Waterford.

If Waterford wins by a handful of points, questions will be asked once more, and claims will be made that the side should and won by more, but if Waterford were to win by a margin along the lines that Tipperary and Galway have beaten them, then many will claim “It was only Offaly”.

Bigger games will have to be played if Waterford are to get to Croke Park this year, but first lets worry about this game and win, whatever the margin will be.