Comerford’s Déise worry
“I think it’s going to be a lot closer than people think,” warned the man who led the Cats to their historic triumph in 2002.
“Kilkenny haven’t really been tested this year while Waterford went to the wire against Limerick, suffered a bad beating against Tipperary, then came back to beat Galway, and played very well — that should set it up to be a cracker.”
The Waterford team of the Munster final, hammered by seven goals by Tipperary, wasn’t the real McCoy, he says. The Waterford team that subsequently shocked Galway, that’s the team Kilkenny should expect to see this Sunday.
“It’s funny in hurling, if you give away an early goal — as Waterford did against Tipperary — it can throw your whole game out of sync. Then you had the goal-blitz before half-time. It was hard for Waterford to recover from that, but it was as false a result as you can get.
“I wasn’t that surprised that they beat Galway afterwards. Galway all year were kind of flattering to deceive but they struggled against Westmeath in the championship, only pulled away in the last few minutes — that’s not All-Ireland-winning form.
“Listen, Waterford are no bad team, they’re tried and tested in their fourth All-Ireland~ semi-final in four years.
“If a lad keeps going to the well long enough one day they’re going to beat Kilkenny, let’s hope it’s not this Sunday. Kilkenny are going to have to be really on their guard.”
And yet, were it not for Tipperary’s demolition job in that Munster final everyone would still be talking about Kilkenny’s display in their provincial final win over Dublin, 4-17 to 1-15, looking very much like the all-conquering Cats of the four-in-a-row years.
“Yeah, Dublin really showed their hand in the league final and Kilkenny were always going to be revved up for the Leinster, they were going to extract revenge. There’s no doubt that it was a different Kilkenny team in the Leinster final; physically, mentally and in the makeup of the team, all the big guns back.
“Eoin Larkin was in top form, they were dropping balls in on top of him and he’s very difficult in those circumstances. [Anthony] Daly brought Liam Rushe back to centre-back and that kind of shored things up a bit but you can’t take away from Kilkenny’s performance, and a repeat of that would make it very awkward for Waterford.”
‘Very awkward’, a euphemism perhaps for another Kilkenny romp? Not really, says the London-born Comerford. If Waterford set up right, they can make this into a dog fight rather than a shoot out.
“Playing the conventional six forwards in their best six positions might be the best option for Waterford. If they drop a few forwards back there’s the danger it could be inviting Kilkenny on to you, and it’s going to be very difficult for the Waterford forwards who are left up front because the Kilkenny backs, one on one from two to seven, are pretty daunting.
“A flat 15 on a flat 15 should be Waterford’s system for Sunday but I think they’ll be set up a lot more defensively than Dublin were. If they can keep the Kilkenny forwards goalless, it will come down to the Waterford forwards — are they good enough to score the 16 or 17 points they’re going to need and maybe a goal or two?
“If Waterford do manage to keep it tight, this could be one of the toughest games Kilkenny have experienced in the last few years — Waterford’s ability to prevent goals is what might determine it at the end of the day.”
