WHERE DO WATERFORD stand in the Munster hurling landscape after the conclusion of the league?
We’re six weeks out from their championship opener against Clare at Walsh Park, a relatively short turn-around when you factor in the players’ club duties this month.
The Deise’s progress to yesterday’s league final meant one round of club hurling championship in April was shelved, but a round of hurling and two rounds of football will still take place over the coming weeks.
Waterford failed to make it out of the province in last year’s inaugural round-robin format and it won’t get any easier in Paraic Fanning’s debut campaign.
The week after the Clare game they travel to face Tipperary in Semple Stadium. They have a bye week before hosting Limerick in round 3 on the first weekend in June and travelling to Pairc Ui Chaoimh to play Cork on 8 June.
Reigning league and All-Ireland champions Limerick are top of the pile in the province, while back-to-back Munster victors Cork must be ranked in second despite their mixed league. The Rebels are a real ‘top of the ground’ team who tend to hit their best form when the sod is dry and the weather is good.
All-Ireland semi-finalists Clare, and league finalists Waterford are arguably on the same level, close to Cork, while it’s difficult to get a read on a Tipperary team that have blown hot and cold so far in Liam Sheedy’s second coming.
After the Deise and Premier failed to advance to the All-Ireland series in 2018, it wouldn’t be a major surprise to see any of Cork, Clare, Waterford or Tipperary finish outside of the top three in Munster.
“We came second. Overall for us it was a decent league,” was Fanning’s assessment after yesterday’s game.
“Nearly all our panel got game-time. We got to know each other as well and the character and make-up of the players. I knew a good few of them already, we knew a good bit about them, but I think we’ve learned a fair bit.
“We’ve learned a fair bit in the last two games. We played Galway twice in three weeks and beat them. Now they’ve been a very consistent team the last few years. We had people saying that we stole the game, Galway didn’t score for 28 minutes in the second-half with the wind behind them.
“To be that shows us in good fettle as well. That’s dominating the second-half if you can keep a team scoreless. I assess the league as pretty decent overall. I think you’ve seen some good young players have got game-time and provided us with serious options going into the championship.”
Fanning will hope to see his defensive options greatly bolstered before it all kicks off next month.
Darragh and Shane Fives, Conor Gleeson, Kieran Bennett and Brian O’Halloran all missed the entire league campaign and their return to full fitness would greatly strengthen Waterford’s back line.
The Deise made it through Division 1B without much fuss, finishing in second place behind Dublin conceding an average of 16.6 points per game.
That figure rises to 17 points when you factor in their quarter-final and semi-final wins over Clare and Galway respectively, which still makes good reading for Fanning’s side.
Limerick’s tally of 1-24 yesterday was Waterford’s second-highest concession so far in this campaign – they shipped 1-26 in the defeat to Dublin back in February.
Tadhg de Burca completed 70 minutes for the second consecutive game, while Conor Prunty made his return from injury off the bench after showing promise earlier in the year.
It’s reasonable to assume the return of some experienced defenders will aid their defensive efforts, but Fanning faces a quandary.
Does he stick with the backs that helped Waterford reach the league final or go with the tried and trusted who may be lacking some match sharpness?
“We got Tadhg into the game and it was important to get him the match and I’d say in fairness Limerick were thinking similar with Declan Hannon today – get the games into guys,” the manager stated.
“Unfortunately they (the injured players) were not ready for today so it’s something we’ll have to gauge and judge in training and the build-up to the Munster championship.
“We still have a nice bit of time before that, six weeks or whatever is left to that. We’ll just have to gauge towards that and see. I can’t answer that right now.
“Places are up for grabs anyway so the lads know that. We have a competitive panel, we’ve a lot of guys fighting for places. It’s great to have those lads, we know the quality we have coming back as well will increase our options.
“Even you could see Conor Prunty had a good league earlier on in the league, was out for a while, got back and got a little bit of game-time into him today. So that’s a help.”
Fanning was defiant after the eight-point loss to Limerick, insisting his group did not play to their potential in Croke Park.
“We’re very disappointed, it’s a league final and losing big matches like that – we were quite confident coming up but I don’t think we did ourselves justice to be fair. That’s a credit to Limerick, we saw how good they are.
He continued: “The bar is high, but we’re disappointed with our own performance. We got back in the game in the first half and thought we might push on, but we made a few mistakes to give them a foothold.
“They’re the best team we played this year so far, they’re All-Ireland champions, they’re very slick in their movement. I thought we got to grips with a lot of it at times but ourselves, we didn’t make enough ball stick up front ourselves, we didn’t hold onto
enough ball.
“We have decent forwards. We didn’t have a great day today but we’ll create more chances the next day, we’ll be back again.
“They are physically a big team, a big unit across the field. To be fair that’s combined with no little class in hurling to go with it. I still think we’re quite powerful as well in a different way. You will see the best of us. I don’t think you saw it today.
“We’ve had games this year throughout the league and we see it in training as well, what our lads are capable of. Trust me, we’ll be back again. We’re looking forward now. We’re disappointed with today, but now we go get ready for the Munster championship and we look forward to that and what’s coming.
“It’s another big competition coming up now and league is over. We’ll regroup and we’ll be back.”
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