Waterford Footballers Can Upset the Odds

In the last number of months especially in hurling we have heard a great deal about home advantage and the role it plays when it comes to deciding the outcome of games.  If home advantage is as important as some make it out to be, then there is little point for some teams to travel to games, as simply the home team are going to win.

Personally I think that the home advantage thing is over hyped. Maybe in soccer it might give you some little advantage but in Gaelic Games that advantage does not really exist. Once the two teams cross that white line the field is the same, there is fifteen players on the opposition sides team and the object of the game is the same despite the tactics that have come into play in recent years used by almost all teams, to win, you have to outscore the opposition.

When Tom McGlinchey takes his Waterford football team to Wexford Park for a 2pm throw in against Wexford in the All-Ireland qualifiers, the fact that they had to travel to the game will not be on their minds. It is just another game, albeit one the side has to win to stay in the championship, and just another venue, and the side will be believing that they can win.

It’s no secret that in the last number of years the Waterford footballers have face many different challenges, not being able to get the best fifteen footballers in the county on the field of play is possibly the biggest, but fair play to be it Tom McGlinchey the current manager of the team or those that have come before him, they have played the game with the cards they were dealt with and have not complained about what they have being dealt with.

Waterford would have high hopes of getting out of Division four in this year’s league, but as we know now it was not to be. This year’s league ended in a disgraceful manner and G.A.A. Chiefs in their suits sitting around the tables and desks in Croke Park making all the decisions have to hang their heads in shame, for the way they treated not just the Waterford footballers, but indeed the footballers of a number of counties playing in the lower rungs of the National Football League ladder.

As we all know now, the fixture makers in Croke Park decided in their wisdom or lack thereof to declare Waterford’s league game with Leitrim null and void, as they did with a number of other fixtures that fell foul of the weather conditions in what was an awful winter weather wise.

Can you imagine what would be said in the written and spoken national media if a senior football league game between Kerry and Dublin, or Mayo and Donegal was declared null and void because the game could not be played because of the weather.

It’s fair to say that there would be many pages devoted on the matter in the national papers and the phone in shows on Radio and TV would have many hours of coverage. Because the games declared null and void were in the lower leagues, what we got from the National Papers was a few column inches and from the spoken media a sentence or two, just confirming what had happened. It was like as if football in Waterford and other counties like Waterford who had their remaining games declared null and void did not matter. Was this because what would be taken at the gates in all of these games grouped together would not match what would be taken at one game in Division One. If this is the case then the meaning of G.A.A. is in fact the Grab All Association as some tell us.

When the draws were made for this stage of the competition recently on Morning Ireland, it’s possibly fair to say that this is one of the fixtures that Waterford would like to have got. Yes I know Waterford might have liked to have had the game played within the county, but remember home advantage is not all it is believed to be at times, as it can put extra pressure on the players to put in a more polished performance in front of what would be a larger support if the game was played within the county. I am also a believer of if you are good enough to win, you will, regardless of where the game is played.

Wexford played a division higher than Waterford in the National League and at the end of it, they found themselves relegated to play in division four next year.

Waterford as already pointed out would have had hopes of getting out of division four this year, but it was not to be.

Because Wexford played in a division higher than Waterford in the league, many would be expecting the Model County to advance from this game. The two sides last met in the 2016 National League and on that occasion while Waterford played well, they had to settle for second best, going under 1-9 to 0-10.

The two sides are playing this weekend because of defeats in the first round of their provincial championship.

Waterford lost out to Tipperary by nine points in Thurles, while Wexford lost after extra time to Laois.

It is going on this game, and Waterford’s clash with the same county in the National League that we can compare where both sides are at.

Yes, Waterford did lose to the side from the Midlands in Portlaoise in the league, but for much of the game Waterford really put it up to the home side.

Wexford on the other hand recently opened up a big lead in their championship game and lost it, before exploding in extra time, so maybe this game could well prove to be a close one, and don’t be surprised if we hear that the game needed a further twenty minutes to discover which of the two sides were to advance to the draw for the next round.

It’s no secret that I think that in football we should have two tiers of a football championship, maybe even three, just as we have five in hurling. I don’t expect many to agree with me, but I for one am not going to change my view on that any time soon, and speaking to others recently who follow the different championships they are thinking along my lines. I also don’t expect that those that can push for a second and even a third tier competition to be brought in will, in case they upset those that hold the real power and maybe in doing so maybe damage their prospects of sitting on different committees or even winning an elected more high profile position.

Right now I would have Tipperary in the top tier of a two tier competition and therefore there would be many even some within the Waterford set up who deep down would have believed that their chances of getting something from the game in Thurles recently would have been fairly remote.

But because Waterford would be on par with the level Waterford are at I firmly believe that Waterford will absolutely believe that they can win this weekend in Wexford.

Waterford should be able to field a stronger team this weekend than which they fielded against Tipperary.

Thomas O’Gorman comes back into contention after he missed the last game because of his honeymoon, while it is believed that Jack Mullaney is also back in contention having missed the Tipperary game with an injury.

For the other positions Waterford would be expected to field along familiar lines, which would see Stephen Enright start between the posts, Brian Looby, Aidan Trihy, Stephen Prendergast and James McGrath vying for the other positions in the defence.

In the middle of the field we could well see Tommy Prendergast and Kieran Power link up, while in attack the likes of Gavin Crotty, Shane Ryan who could well drop back to play as an extra defender, Conor Murray, Jason Curry, JJ Hutchinson and Joey Veale could all be in contention for starting places.

Waterford will go into this game as the outsiders, but something is tell me that they could well end up the happier of the two sides on Saturday afternoon and so advance to the second round of the qualifiers, where they would be hoping to avoid some of the bigger guns in the draw.