De La Salle are still the favourites, insists Ryan

County semi-final time in the Waterford SHC, favourites De La Salle facing city rivals Mount Sion and western sides Fourmilewater and Dungarvan battling it out in the other match.

Waterford hurling boss Michael Ryan, former coach of De La Salle and Fourmilewater clubman, is well placed to offer his views.

“De La Salle have been favourites since the start of the season and still are. They got a nice wake-up call in the quarter-final against Lismore and might have been complacent for that game as Lismore almost won it. That’s nothing against Lismore, who were very good on the night.

“De La Salle will be favourites, but Mount Sion in a county senior semi-final. Nobody gave them a chance against Ballygunner in the previous round but they were deserving winners. They’ll roll up the sleeves and give it plenty against De La Salle; just because they’re underdogs doesn’t mean they’ll roll over, not at all.”

There’ll be novelty no matter who wins the other game: “Dungarvan haven’t been there since 1951, while Fourmilewater have never been in a final. The one issue for Fourmilewater is we have 12 dual players starting, and we had extra-time in the football last week. Apart from being tired, you also have the issue a lot of the hurlers won’t have had as much time with the hurley in their hand as they’d have liked, but if you’re involved in both codes, you have to expect that.”

“The combination of two city sides in one game and two clubs from the west of the county in the other indicates hurling is in good health in the county. It’s got to be good for hurling in Waterford,” added Ryan. “If you went back to the ’60s or ’70s you had three or four clubs which dominated – the likes of Mount Sion and Portlaw, with the odd club making a breakthrough now and again.

“The hurling has spread to the west in recent years, you can go back to Ballyduff winning the county back in 2007 as one crucial win in that regard, while Lismore have always been competitive, and asked serious questions of De La Salle in the county quarter-final. Real hurling people will want to see both games, and though the weather forecast isn’t the greatest for the weekend, I’d expect a good turnout for both of them – and fair dues to the county board for facilitating people who want to see both games.”

Wearing his managerial cap, Ryan says he’s picked out a few prospects in the club games for the Déise county team for 2013.

“We’ve identified five or six young players with potential. Whether they’ll make county players or not we don’t know, but at this time of year that’s all you can do – identify the potential.

“We need to do that because other counties are bringing through young players and we can’t fall behind.”