Waterford Footballers Have It All To Do At Thurles

            A few short years back had Waterford drawn Tipperary in the quarter finals of the Munster Senior Football Championship, be it at home or away, those with an interest in football in the Déise County would be quietly confident of progressing to the semi finals of the championship, knowing at worst Waterford had a 50/50 chance of winning the game.

            I for one hope I am proved wrong this weekend when the two meet at Thurles on Saturday evening, but it’s to see Waterford standing a chance of progressing to the semi final stages of this year’s championship.

            While Waterford in recent years have languished in the bottom half of Division Four in the National League and have not won a Munster Championship game for nearly a decade at this level, in the All-Ireland qualifiers Waterford have fared ever so slightly better, but not much unless we count the nearly won games, the Premier County side’s footballers have seen their profile when it comes to football have seen them move nicely on an upward direction on a progress graph.

            Yes, I know this time last year nobody gave Waterford a chance of beating Cork at this stage of the competition; Tom McGlinchey’s side pushed the Rebels to within one point at Fraher Field.

            Questions however have to be asked of Cork last year. Did they underestimate Waterford? Did they travel to Dungarvan believing that they were only playing Waterford and a win was going to happen? What was the mood like in the Cork camp? We all know that for some time things are not as they should be when it comes to football in the Rebel County. Was confidence as it should and would have been in Cork Football teams in times past?

            One thing is for sure regardless of what the thinking was in the Cork panel this time last year, Liam Kearns will not have his side underestimating the challenge of Waterford this weekend and the management team and the players will be fully aware of what Waterford can do if their thinking is not right.

            I have no doubt that there might be some that reading this that will argue that I am in some way knocking Waterford Football. If this is the way things are coming across, I can safely say that this is certainly not how it’s meant to be.

            In the last two decades I think it’s fair to say that by choice I have gone to see the Waterford footballers more often than I have the hurlers. I have attended more County Senior Football Finals in that time than I have hurling finals. Some of these finals I have attended I could just as easily sat at home and listened to the game on the radio. Some of the finals I have attended were on wet and miserable days, and on occasions played in more of a mud bath than a Gaelic Field.

            For me my lack of belief in Waterford Inter County Football right now is down to the lonely place it is. With Kilkenny no longer playing Senior Inter County Football, Waterford right now on the ranking ladder possibly have New York and London below us, and you could argue that the exiles to our east could even be ranked higher right now.

            I hope that we never go down the route that Kilkenny have and stop playing Senior Football. Whether some of us want to admit it or not, the G.A.A. is a duel sport Association, and Waterford is a Duel County.

            I have in the past suggested that we take the bull by the horns when it comes to football in the Déise County and as a county we push hard and very hard to try and improve the standards of the game because I don’t think the Munster Council and certainly not Central Council (we have seen the proof this year with the declaring of the League game with Leitrim made Null and Void, even though both sides wanted to play the game) are all that interested in promoting football in the Déise County.

            We as a county need to be encouraging our best players to be lining out for Waterford in all grades when it comes to football.

            It might surprise some of Waterford’s best supporters to find out that players like Jamie Barron, Conor Gleeson, Tadhg Bourke, Conor Prunty, Seamus Keating, Brian O’Halloran, Tom Devine and Michael Walsh who are all part of Derek McGrath’s Waterford senior hurling set up are all possibly better footballers than they are hurlers. If these and other players had played football competitively for Waterford down the years, would we be where we are right now. I doubt we would, but I for one can see why they would give most of their attention to hurling in recent times.

While Waterford might never get players like these to play competitively for the county anytime in the near future, Tom McGlinchey and his selectors will have 15 men out on Saturday evening who will be giving it their all for the White and Blue shirt.

Players like Stephen Enright, Shane Ryan, James McGrath, Conor McCarthy, Gary Cullinane, Michael Curry, Tommy Prendergast, Kieran Power, Joe Allen, Joey Veale, Dylan Guiry, Conor Murray, Craig Guiry, Michael Kiely and Jason Curry all look as if they could play a big part for Waterford and will not let the side down if they do get the nod to start or come on in this game.

Waterford will be without Paul Whyte and Donie Breathnach for this game and could also be without the likes of Ray Ó Ceallaigh and Fergal Ó Cuirrín who have not lined out for An Rinn in the Championship yet this year, while there is also doubts about Tadhg Ó hUallachain who picked up a facial injury playing for his club in the championship, making Waterford’s task all the more harder this weekend.

Tipperary go into this weekend’s game with Waterford with doubts hanging over the availability of Steven O’Brien (turned ankle) and Emmet Moloney (groin strain), but still will be able to put out a very strong team which could include the likes of Evan Comerford, Bill Maher, Robbie Kiely, Jimmy Feehan, Josh Keane as well as their marquee forwards Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney.

The home side go into this game as favourites and do so for a reason. I would love to hear that Waterford beat Tipperary on Saturday evening. (I won’t get the chance to listen to the game live on WLRfm), but I can’t really see it happen.