Déise will be in September shake-up, warns selector Fanning

THERE are those who believe that, come the first Sunday in September, and as happened for past two years, that the All-Ireland championship will again come down again to just two teams, Tipperary and Kilkenny.

It’s a view with which Waterford selector Pauric Fanning would like to take issue.

“We don’t believe that,” he says, after a weekend in which 13-man Waterford, already shorn of 11 front-liners, put up a heroic display against Tipperary in Thurles. Fanning’s side lost by just five points, the same margin that separated the sides when goalkeeper Clinton Hennessey became the second Waterford player to receive a straight red card. Fanning continued: “We believe we’ll have a big say (in the championships) we’re not going to back down from that. We believe in ourselves — we have a very good dressing room, a very positive dressing room and if anyone thinks we’re going to go through the motions, we’re not.