Hannon expects better against Cork

WATERFORD selector Shamie Hannon is convinced his side will show marked improvement against All-Ireland champions Cork for their second clash of the championship in Croke Park on Sunday.

When the counties clashed in Thurles in the Munster semi-final on May 22 with Paul Flynn not fully recovered from injury and Ken McGrath lacking match practice Cork finished with just two points to spare.

"Each team will say that it was a kind of below par performance. We would expect an improvement from our team, but Cork will be saying that too,'' he comments.

With Waterford's unexpected defeat by Clare in the crucial third round of the qualifier series provoking a lot of comment in the media, Hannon himself was linked to rumours that he was resigning from the management.

And there were other suggestions of Dave Bennett quitting the panel.

Hannon admits that he was "dumbfounded" by the speculation.

"I don't know where it originated from.

"Obviously after the Clare match there were people looking on putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with six,'' he explained.

Waterford's other two matches, against Offaly and Dublin (especially) were "no better" than challenge games, he agreed. But, they recognised that their meeting with Clare in Cusack Park was "a potential banana skin." And, it would have been for any team which played in Ennis that day.

"You will always get a game out of Clare as we saw last year,'' he added. "Everyone agrees they should have beaten Kilkenny in the first quarter-final. The first day in Croke Park Kilkenny were lucky to get out of it with a draw.

"This time, Clare were after getting a share of stick from their own people after the Offaly match.

"They were really on 'a high'.

Jamesie O'Connor writes in the Farmers' Journal and he said that Waterford players were 'showboating' last year when we beat them in the championship. He mentioned the names of a few players, including John Mullane.

"They were naturally fired up and Anthony Daly's position was on the line as well. If there's one team to get Clare going, it's Waterford and that's going back a bit.''

Back in his own playing days, Waterford didn't have a good history in the championship against Cork, hence the jubilation following their unexpected victories in 1967 and 1974 (in Justin McCarthy's last game as a Cork hurler). But, it has been a very different story over the last few years.

"The standard of competition between Cork and Waterford has levelled out a good bit. There hasn't been much between us in any of the games,'' he adds.

It's what inspires hope among players and supporters for a further levelling out this weekend.