WATERFORD WILL BE even stronger when they meet Cork again in two weeks time, and as the numbers come flooding back, who’d want to be a manager.
According to Waterford’s Noel Connors a number of players are edging towards a return from injury and suspension.
The corner back says that he’s “happy” with last week’s draw as they now have two extra weeks to recover.
“Our objective is to play as many matches as possible, particularly with the younger fellas and the injuries that we have,’ he says, ‘it gives individuals two weeks to come back onto the panel and maybe even onto the team. Look we’re happy we got a draw like.”
Shane O’Sullivan is one who is certain to return after he missed out at the weekend due to a one match suspension picked up during last month’s league.
“The likes of Shane O’Sullivan who was sent off against Dublin, he’ll be freed up the next game. Gives individuals like that the opportunity to make it even more difficult for Derek.”
Waterford manager Derek McGrath was forced to blood a number of youngsters in to his starting fifteen last weekend, but the likes of Austin Gleeson will have made it very hard for him to leave them out in two weeks’ time.
“I think the young lads really enjoyed the occasion. You can talk about decisions til the cows come home but ultimately the game was a draw. You can’t really dwell too much on what happened.
“You have to take into consideration the majority of that team have won colleges or played at a high level with All-Ireland winning minor teams and stuff. So I don’t really think the occasion phased them too much. That’s where all the experience stemmed from in that sense.”
Waterford went in at half time six points ahead, increasing their lead to nine points in to the second half with Cork struggling to compete with their intensity.
“Look Waterford in general is a very proud county” said the 24 year old defender. “I suppose we get a lot of criticism at times in terms of being under-rated and so forth. It really showed the hunger and desire that we wanted to play with freedom and abandon, particularly with the younger fellas going out like.
“I suppose I’m alluding to what Derek said, everyone was not really giving us too much of a chance. And we went out and kind of proved the critics wrong to be perfectly honest.”
Last year’s All-Ireland finalists, Cork came in to the game with odds of 1/4, despite competing in this year’s Division 1B league.
“Ultimately if you start focusing on that, you’re after losing the battle already. Our objective was to go out and hurl with freedom and abandon, that’s what this Waterford team is all about.
“To be honest I don’t know how many Waterford or Cork fans or whatever ratio, we don’t really focus too much on that when we take the field. There could be one Waterford individual out there. Our objective is just to gout and win. We’re a competitive bunch of individuals that strives to be the best in the country. So it’s not too much of an issue for us.
“The replay is in two weeks, it could be tomorrow. We’re going to look forward to it.”
