THE ODDS ARE firmly stacked against Waterford ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final, from a historical viewpoint.
Waterford haven’t beaten the Cats in the senior championship since 1959 but modern day players don’t have rear-view mirrors.
The biggest challenge facing these Waterford boys is belief.
In the Munster final, that belief fizzled out of them in the last six or seven minutes. They didn’t really believe that they could beat Tipperary.
Derek McGrath will have drilled this belief into his charges, that if they are to achieve anything, they’ll have to beat the big boys at Croke Park.
If they believe they can win, Waterford will start quickly but a match against Kilkenny starts from the moment you open your eyes on the morning of the game.
It’s a real game of intensity and concentration before you even get possession of the ball.
Another big question for Waterford is where scores are going to come from.
35 per cent of what they have racked up this summer has come from placed balls and it’s difficult to envisage Kilkenny coughing up 9 or 10 points from frees.
So the responsibility lies not only on the shoulders of Maurice Shanahan, but also the likes of Austin Gleeson and Colin Dunford to chip in more from play.
You can only contain Kilkenny for so long before the time comes when you have to go in search of the scores that will win the game for your own team.
So that means Waterford will have to go man to man at some point in proceedings to beat them. This is when we will find out if Waterford have learned the lessons from their Munster final defeat.
Much has been made of Waterford’s system but sitting Tadhg de Búrca yards away from a roving Richie Hogan is asking for trouble.
Do Waterford have a player capable of matching up to the 2014 Hurler of the Year, a player outside of Noel Connors, but in his mould, who can fulfil this role?
Waterford, when they go man to man, will run the risk of being exposed to the lethal Kilkenny attack but it’s a risk they will have to take.
Waterford’s style to date has seen them sacrifice possession 100 yards from their own goal, in the hope that the opposition will hit it down on top of their spare man.
Kilkenny are a different animal and will have targeted this as a potential area to exploit.
And if Kilkenny get a flow of ball through Hogan, this game could be over very, very quickly.
The positive for Waterford is that in the Munster final, they played against a goal-hungry Tipperary team but didn’t concede any goal chances.
This will provide manager Derek McGrath with some real hope that the Kilkenny attack can be nullified.
Waterford have used 21 players in the championship so far and each one of them has contributed in some way.
Shane Bennett was the wild card in the quarter-final against Dublin and if Waterford are to beat Kilkenny, the use of their bench will be critical.
In this regard, I think Patrick Curran could be the man this time, if the game is close.
Curran is a player that I like and he can have an impact coming down the home straight if this one is in the melting pot.
The general opinion with Kilkenny is that you just have to mark Hogan and TJ Reid but the problem is much bigger than this.
Most teams have three 6/10 forwards, two 7/10 and then one marquee forward.
But Kilkenny’s average is 8 or 9 out of 10 right across the forward division.
It’s very hard to focus a defensive strategy around one player because someone else will jump up and bite you.
You might focus on one of the Kilkenny ‘star’ men but then a player like Ger Aylward does something out of the ordinary.
You might try to smother Kilkenny as a whole but you can’t smother them individually because they have so many game changers all over the pitch.
Whoever wins the battleground that is the middle third of the pitch against Kilkenny wins the war.
Waterford must beware too that they will be almost more vulnerable at times when they are in possession of the ball.
Kilkenny are masters of turning over possession and turning defence into attack.
If they strip you of the ball on your own 65, everybody moves forward and you’re suddenly on the back foot. They have the jump on you and it’s almost impossible to filter back in time.
Again, I expect Kilkenny to do enough but I don’t buy into this talk that it’s a ‘free shot’ for Waterford and that they have nothing to lose.
It’s an All-Ireland semi-final, a chance to ultimately compete in a final and so they have everything to lose.
There’s no guarantee that they’ll get back to this stage of the competition any time soon – just ask Davy Fitzgerald and Clare – and so you must take these opportunities when they come along.
Waterford will give it one hell of a shot but when the dust has settled, I expect they will have fallen short.
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I WON THE Poc Fada title for the 9th time last Saturday. It was the hardest won and for that reason, right up there with the sweetest.
I only led for the last 6 pocs of the competition. You talk about turning points in big days at Croke Park but I’d never have thought that a 40-yard wide ravine would be a turning point for me last weekend.
Laois goalkeeper Eoin Reilly sent his ball into the ravine but I didn’t – and that’s what won Poc Fada 2015 for me.
When I cleared the ravine, I had 50 pocs taken. At this stage, Eoin was finished on 58 pocs and 61 yards.
I was 7 pocs from the finishing line but I knew that I could mishit no ball from there.
That was the pressure and the adrenaline that I used to experience from playing with Tipperary on All-Ireland final day was running through my veins again.
As I stood over my last poc, 60 yards from the finish line on an uphill, the rain came.
I took shelter beside a huge rock for ten minutes until the rain cleared and then went for it. I couldn’t take the chance in the rain that I’d mishit it so I had to wait. I got across the line in 57 pocs and 4 yards, winning by 1 poc.
It’s amazing how 4 small yards can have such a big impact on your life.
