Difficult Task for Waterford Footballers

Fraher Field is set to have a bumper capacity tomorrow afternoon when Tom McGlinchey’s Waterford Senior Football team take on Monaghan in the second round of qualifiers in this year’s All-Ireland Football Championship.

When the draw for the first round was made, Waterford certainly drew one of the shorter straws when they were paired with Wexford, even if they had to travel to play the game in the Yellow Bellies own back garden, but after the brilliant win in that game they drew one of the longer straws in this round of the competition.

Few if any will give Waterford any chance in this game, and why would they after all.

The Ulster side played in the first tier of the National Football League earlier this year and narrowly missed out in a place in the final, despite drawing with Mayo in their first game and recording wins over Kildare, Kerry, Tyrone, Donegal and most famously Dublin along the way.

That win over Dublin in the last round of games, albeit an under strength Dublin side was their first over the Sky Blues since 2006 and their first ever win over them at G.A.A. Headquarters.

In the Ulster Championship they recorded a win over Tyrone (1-18 to 1-16) in the Ulster Quarter Final but were surprised in the semi final when they lost out to Fermanagh on a 1-8 to 0-10 score line.

Monaghan are the second most successful side in Ulster when it comes to winning the Ulster Championship with sixteen wins, twenty one wins behind run away leaders Cavan on the Roll of Honour, with their most recent win coming in 2015 when they beat Donegal 0-11 to 0-10, and come to Dungarvan having named a very strong starting fifteen for the game.

They have played nine competitive games in league and championship this year and goalkeeper Rory Beggan and Centre Field player Niall Kearns having played in all of these games, while the other thirteen players that they have named have played a part in seven or eight of the nine competitive games played, so have a very settled look to the team.

In defence they have named Kieran Duffy at right corner back with Drew and Ryan Wylie named at full back and left corner back respectfully.

The Monaghan half back line of Dessie Mone, Vinny Corey and Karl O’Connell look a strong unit as does Niall Kearns and Darren Hughes in the middle of the field.

In attack Ryan McAnespie, Dermot Malone and Fintan Kelly will look to cause the Waterford half back line problems while the inside forward line of Cormac McCarthy, Jack McCarron and Conor McManus looks very dangerous.

The importance of a disciplined performance by Waterford cannot be highlighted enough as with the visitor’s site they have a number of quality free takers including goalkeeper Rory Beggan who has amassed some impressive tallies on the score sheet so far this year when kicking placed balls.

At the time of compiling this piece, no Waterford team is named, but it could be envisaged that most if not all of the side that started in the win over Wexford will start this game.

That will mean Stephen Enright starting between the posts, with Aidan Trihy, Stephen Prendergast and James McGrath playing in front of him with Brian Looby, Michael Curry and Shane Ryan completing the back line.

Should the team that started against Wexford get the nod to start this game, then that will mean that Tommy Prendergast and Kieran Power will line up in the middle of the field, while in attack Gavin Crotty, Dylan Guiry and Conor Murray starting in the half forward line with Jason Curry, JJ Hutchinson and Jack Mullaney starting in the inside forward line.

However many would expect Thomas O’Gorman to get a run from the start in this game somewhere in defence. The tough tattling Nire man is one of the best man markers in the county and could well be asked to come in and make life difficult for one or more of the Monaghan forwards, while Joe Allen who replaced Gavin Crotty the last day after he picked up a black card might also be expected to start as he kicked a crucial goal in that win following some good work by Tommy Prendergast.  

While many will give Waterford no chance to get something from this game, I for one will know that playing Dungarvan at Fraher Field is never easy for any side.

I know I for one have said on more than one occasion that there should be at least two tiers of football in the championship, and I am hoping and praying that I will not have to make similar claims again after this game.

God knows, Waterford football needs a good showing and needs a big win over one of the bigger and better footballing sides to show that football in Waterford is nowhere near as poor as some claim it is.

Will that win come in Fraher Field tomorrow. I am hoping more than expecting that it will happen, but who knows, if Waterford can get a huge local support into the ground and to roar this team on, then who knows what will happen.

There is some that claimed that the win over Wexford in the last round of the competition, but I would not make such claims, as I expected Waterford to win that game, playing against a side that were of equal strength to Waterford. If Waterford were to win tomorrow in Fraher Field and advance to the next phase of the competition, then that would be a shock result.

Will it happen, well as i said I am hoping more than expecting that it will happen, but then again I know playing in Fraher Field can be a daunting task for many sides and let us hope from a Waterford perspective that it can happen.