Huge Clash for Waterford Hurlers

There is something special about the Munster Senior Hurling Championship. Down the years some great games have been played, and many supporters off all teams have great stories to tell, not just of what happened on the field of play, but maybe what might have happened before or after a game on the walk up to away from the different grounds, maybe in one of the nearby clubs or maybe while eating them ham sandwiches and drinking tea where cars are pulled up before heading to the ground or before leaving for the journey home.

Up to fairly recent times when a team were beaten after one game that was it for the year. There were no more championship games for the rest of the year to attend unless you got to get your hands on Munster Final or even better still All-Ireland Final tickets.

There were those that argued that it was hard on players who would have trained hard all winter and spring and that they deserved a second bite of the apple in an attempt to be playing at Croke Park in early September.

And so in their wisdom G.A.A. Chiefs decided that teams that were beaten in a provincial game up to an including a Provincial Final should be given a second bite of that apple, and ‘The Back Door’ system was introduced.

For Waterford this weekend it’s going back to those days pre mid 1990’s when there was no second chances. Its win for the Waterford hurlers this weekend in Limerick or Waterford’s Championship year is over for another year, when maybe one era comes to an end and maybe another one to begin with new faces and new voices for the players to look at and listen to in the dressing rooms going into the future.

Limerick possibly were given the best draw in this year’s new look championship, playing in the first round of games, getting a bye in the second round, playing on the Saturday evening in the third round of games, giving them that little extra time to recover before playing again in the fourth round of game on familiar environs in this weekend.

Results have really gone their way as well. Beating Tipperary in the first round of games was a massive result for them. There would be some that would have predicted that Limerick, Cork and Tipperary would be the sides that advance to the All-Ireland Series out of Munster this year and when the latter two took points off each other in the second round of games it gave the Shannonsider’s an excellent chance of being the side that would go straight to a Munster Final if they could get something from their remaining games, and last weekend playing the whole of the second half with a numerical disadvantage and having lost Declan Hannon with illness getting a draw in Pairc Ui Chaoimh was an excellent result, especially when you consider that Clare did not play in round three and Waterford and Tipperary also had to share the spoils.

They are many that feel that Limerick are the team to watch in the next few years and I for one am not going to argue with them.

In the Munster Colleges Championship they have put together some good teams. They have won and contested Munster Minor Championships and they have won Munster and All-Ireland Under 21 championships.

Yes i know, success at underage level and on the colleges scene does not mean that success will follow at adult level, but it is a massive help as it shows the work is being put in and if the right people are in charge going forward and there is men at women with vision making plans going forward then there is every chance that success at adult level will follow.

A lot has being said about Waterford and injury worries in this years championship.

To lose one player with injury in a championship game is often seen to be tough, but for Waterford to lose so many players against Clare in their opening round of games was absolutely unbelievable.

 But as we saw last weekend when Waterford despite all the odds fought hard to get a draw (some might say only in the referee’s notebook) all the injuries might have been a blessing in disguise.

I have not seen Waterford play in the flesh this year, but have spoken to a number of people that have and they are all saying the one thing. They are all telling me that the way Waterford are playing they are going nowhere and I have spoken to people who are watching Waterford sides for more years than some of us had hot dinners and they have given up going to see Waterford playing for one reason, they do not like to see what they are seeing.

Watching the recent Limerick and Cork game on TV i tweeted something along the lines ‘wouldn’t it be great to see Waterford play the way the two sides were playing in Pairc Ui Chaoimh’, adding something like they are able if they were allowed to.

Heading into the game with Tipperary last week I was dreading what i might see happen on my TV Screen. Memories of recent Munster Final losses against the same opposition under Davy Fitzgerald in Cork and under Derek McGrath in Limerick came flooding back to me.

To me in the last few years Waterford had become a one trick pony, playing the same system regardless of who the opposition were.

Anyone that knows me and knows what I have to say in the last few years will know that I am no fan of the sweeper system so favoured by Derek McGrath. Maybe it is a case of so many others who don’t like it, I don’t understand it, so one day I am hoping that someone who does will explain it to me.

While Waterford is using the system to me only two players have played the role of the sweeper, Tadhg Bourke or Darragh Fives. Had Kevin Moran being available for selection on Sunday last I have a feeling that he would have been asked to play the free man role, but he wasn’t because of suspension, and therefore Waterford had to give up playing that system as it would be very hard to expect anyone to familiarise themselves playing that role in one week in training.

  What we saw last week when Waterford went man on man against Tipperary was a Waterford side play its best hurling in a number of years, and forgetting ‘that goal’ Waterford were unlucky not to have got something from the game with Tipperary.

It would be great to think that Waterford will go one on one again this coming weekend then there is every chance that Waterford can end this home advantage thing that many are taking about and take something this game.

Last weekend we saw five of the forwards that started the game get their name on the score sheet and if the same was to happen this coming weekend then you would have to favour Waterford.

Despite the injuries that Waterford has there is still plenty of potential in this Waterford team. Players like DJ Foran, Thomas Ryan, Patrick Curran and Tom Devine, players who might normally get anywhere near sixty let alone seventy minutes to shine all did so last week and will be eager to do so again this weekend if selected.

Heading into this weekend’s round of games, Limerick right now are on a high, and they will want to get another good result playing in front of their home support, something they will know that if they get and then take the points when they make the short journey to Ennis to play Clare they should be in the Munster Final in a few weeks times.

But things don’t always turn out like this. Confidence must be high in the Waterford panel after getting a good result last weekend and there has to be determination there to make up for what happened last weekend as well.

If Waterford can play the same way in which they played last weekend, with six backs and six forwards on the field of play at all times, then I believe that Waterford can win this game, but if we are to return to our old ways and decide to play with extra defenders, then Waterford’s championship for another year will be over.