WATERFORD BOSS MICHAEL Ryan has named three championship newcomers in his side to face Clare in next Sunday’s Munster SHC quarter-final.
Lismore’s Paudie Prendergast, a member of this year’s UCC Fitzgibbon Cup winning squad, gets the nod for his debut at left half-back.
While in attacker Jamie Barron of Fourmilewater and Jake Dillon of De La Salle fill the corner-forward positions.
The duo are highly-rated forward prospects who will still be eligible for the U21 ranks in 2014 and featured against Clare in the Munster minor hurling deciders in 2010 and 2011. Prendergast was also involved in that 2010 final.
The other notable addition to the side is goalkeeper Ian O’Regan who was previously involved in championship in 2004 when Waterford lost to Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final. The Mount Sion player comes in after Stephen O’Keeffe was the established number one last season with Clinton Hennessy the primary netminder before that.
Survivors
In all there are only five survivors from the Waterford side that started in the defeat of Clare in last year’s Munster hurling semi-final – Liam Lawlor, Michael Walsh, Kevin Moran, Maurice Shanahan and Seamus Prendergast.
Into the side come goalkeeper O’Regan, the defensive quartet of Darragh Fives, Noel Connors, Jamie Nagle and Prendergast, midfielder Shane O’Sullivan, and attackers Brian O’Halloran, Barron, Pauric Mahony and Dillon.
Connors did come on as a substitute during that game while O’Sullivan was based in the USA and injuries affected the availability of O’Halloran and Mahony last year
The absentees for Waterford on this occasion include the retired duo of Eoin Kelly and John Mullane, the injured duo of Stephen Daniels and Richie Foley while Stephen Molumphy and Philip Mahony are both out of the country. The remaining four players from last year not named to start after O’Keeffe, Aidan Kearney, Shane Walsh and Gavin O’Brien.
There are five U21 players in the Waterford starting line-up – Fives, Prendergast, Barron, Mahony and Dillon.
WATERFORD: Ian O’Regan (Mount Sion); Darragh Fives (Tourin), Liam Lawlor (Fourmilewater), Noel Connors (Passage); Jamie Nagle (Dungarvan), Michael Walsh (Stradbally), Paudie Prendergast (Lismore); Shane O’Sullivan (Ballygunner), Kevin Moran (De La Salle); Maurice Shanahan (Lismore), Seamus Prendergast (Ardmore), Brian O’Halloran (Clashmore/Kinsalebeg); Jamie Barron (Fourmilewater), Pauric Mahony (Ballygunner), Jake Dillon (De La Salle).
