McGrath refuses to be drawn on semi-final choice

Eight points separated Clare from Waterford when the sides met in Munster last summer.

The gap was 13 by the time they met again in Cusack Park in the league a little over two months ago. With games between Davy Fitzgerald’s men and Cork so nip and tuck in the same period, you might imagine the All-Ireland champions would prefer to be meeting Waterford in the provincial semi-final come June 15.

Maybe, maybe not.

Either way, Conor McGrath would not be drawn on it yesterday ahead of Sunday’s clash between the Rebels and their Déise neighbours. In Dublin to promote Liberty Insurance’s co-sponsorship of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship, he was careful not to become a hostage to fortune.

“It will be a very good game. We just got over Waterford in the quarter-final, got a few points late on to beat them. Cork beat us well (in the Munster semi-final) so I’m not sure. I don’t think we have any preference for who we play.”

Cork ‘wintered’ well in Division 1B, taking nine of the ten points on offer before giving Tipperary a rattle in the quarter-final and they passed a relegated Waterford side on the way back up to the league’s upper tier.

A repeat of Clare-Cork would whet the appetite given the back-to-back epics they produced in September and, though McGrath doesn’t agree it would be too soon for them to meet again, he isn’t overlooking Waterford.

“Waterford have a lot of exciting young players,” said McGrath. “They’ve won the last few minors and are having similar success to the Clare minors over the last couple of years so I think they will be coming strong. They have unbelievable players like Kevin Moran and Brick Walsh so, from that side, they will be very strong and I don’t need to talk about Cork after the battles we had last year. Whoever comes through, it will be a huge test for us.”