Waterford better placed to win League
The ease with which holders Kilkenny disposed of Wexford in Sunday’s semi-final will serve as a reminder of what’s in front of them, says selector and former star Shamie Hannon.
However, he is satisfied that their players have the temperament to take the win over Cork in their stride and prepare accordingly.
“They won’t read too much into it. They are there for the long haul and have enough done to know that what they did on Sunday is no good to them in two weeks’ time,’’ said Hannon. “What you have done up to now isn’t much good to you going forward. It’s past tense now. We have to look ahead. This is a very good Kilkenny team, they had Wexford beaten after a quarter of an hour.’’
The game, which is likely to see Henry Shefflin return to action following his honeymoon, will mark the first meeting of the counties since the 2004 All-Ireland semi-final. Kilkenny won that game, 3-12 to 0-18.
While acknowledging that the holders will start favourites, Hannon believes that Waterford are better placed to win than they were three years ago when they lined up against Galway in Limerick. On one hand, the team is more mature and then there’s the important consideration that they don’t have to worry about the game impinging on their championship preparations.
“In fairness, it was different the last time. With the championship coming up a week later, that was bound to have an effect on the performance against Galway. This year, we have a good run in. We won’t be playing until June 17 (against the winners of the Cork/Clare first-round game).
“So, there’s no problem with the match interfering with our League final.’’
He wasn’t surprised by the closeness of Sunday’s game or the exciting finish, commenting: “that’s the nature of Cork/Waterford games in the last couple of years. There’s never much in it — just the puck of a ball here and there. And it hasn’t changed. Luckily for us we were on the right side this time. We were on the wrong side too long (most recently in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final).’’
Apart from the result, the contribution of newcomers Aidan Kearney, Stephen Molumphy and Shane Walsh has been encouraging for the management. The way Hannon explains it, while starting out with the ambition of reaching the play-offs, they took the chance of introducing a few new players.
“That has worked out fairly well for us and we have used players in different positions. We have a few options coming out of the League this year that we didn’t have other years. We recognise that Cork were missing Joe Deane and they lost Neil Ronan early on. But, they would have the players to replace all those fellows, or they should have at least, coming from the under-age structures, from all the under-age championships they have won. Any Cork player that would be coming on would be tried and tested.’’
With the certainty of the good weather continuing, he is satisfied that the League final will serve as ideal preparations for the championship.
“If you like, you could call it championship hurling now with the conditions. Everything is pointing towards a good game.
“Kilkenny seem to be able to do the damage early on and then ‘sit on it’, as they did against Wexford. They can put teams away early. But, we’d be hoping that the hard matches our fellows have had over the last five or six weeks will stand to them. However, there’s still a bit of room for improvement.’’
*Waterford’s only League success came in 1963, in a replay against New York in Nowlan Park, after they had defeated Tipperary in the home final.
