Deise defence on guard for Browne threat

SEVERAL members of the Waterford team facing Tipperary in the first round of the Munster SFC at Walsh Park tomorrow were little more than toddlers when the Decies last savoured success in the provincial championship arena.

Incredibly, fifteen years have passed since the Munster minnows last won a game in the championship. Ironically, it was at the expense of the Premier County on a 3-9 to 1-11 score-line.

The new dawn it signalled for the county was painfully brief as Tipperary were successful in all five subsequent meetings of the counties.

The heaviest of those five defeats was in 1994 when Tipp won with fourteen points to spare, (5-14 to 0-14), while Cork inflicted the most ignominious defeat of all in 1999 when winning by a whopping twenty eight points, 3-23 to 0-4.

Waterford will parade half a dozen championship debutantes tomorrow but ironically for a variety of reasons manager Denis Walsh doesn't have the best fifteen players in the county available to him.

Several of them have opted out for reasons best known to themselves, and the real irony of it is that Waterford's 'footballer of the year' for 2001 and 2002, Stradbally's Niall Curran, will be lining out tomorrow not with the seniors but with the county juniors.

Curran's case is the classic illustration of the difficulties Denis Walsh is facing. Although still only in his mid 20s, the prolific scoring forward announced his retirement from all inter-county football activity last year.

However he recently accepted an approach from the county junior selectors to make himself available for selection and hence will be in championship action tomorrow, but not with the seniors.

Both sides go into the game on the back of very poor league form. Tipperary ended up bottom of the group without a win from seven starts while Waterford amassed just one win from the same number of games coincidentally against Tipperary at Dungarvan's Fraher Field. Crucially for Tipp however former Allstar Declan Browne was an absentee that day, and his return to the side could well tilt the scales in their favour tomorrow.

The Moyle Rovers clubman is the central threat and unless the Deise defence can curb him he could be the one to plot and fashion their downfall. While Waterford can't claim to have a player of Browne's rich talent in their ranks they do have players of genuine quality in defenders Kevin Coffey and Ger Hayes, midfielder Karl O'Keeffe, Connie Power, Johnny Hennessy, and Gary Hurney in attack.

The hunger for success has to be there, in fact it should now be insatiable after sixteen championship defeats on the trot. And manager Walsh is confident that if their attitude is right on the day and they receive a fair return of the breaks then they cane end that inordinately lengthy losing sequence.

However given their outstanding championship record against Waterford over the years, and the massive impetus the returning Declan Browne is certain to provide, Tipp look marginally the better bet to prevail and set up the doubtful distinction of a semi-final showdown with Kerry.