Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

well he is worthy of a HOTY on current form, so yes could be the 4th with tony dan and aussie

I'm guessing Nowlan Park or Thurles for the league semi finals on Sunday 27th March

I don't get your logic re Gordon Bennett and need to use an expletive........? Can you elaborate.?

Gonna guess it's akin to something delboy (for example) might say....Gordon Bennett, he's good!

How many points do Dublin need to win by to overtake us on score difference ?

Cahill and Cody could be a bit sneaky and play for a draw meaning Dublin are out. Tipperary still have an outside chance but need so much luck (need both Kilkenny and Dublin to lose)

Wouldn't be surprised if 1 or both of the semi finals are on Saturday evening for television, that weekend is the last group games in the football so all the football games are starting the same time Sunday afternoon, also no guarantee of a double header, for example if there's a Wexford/Kilkenny semi final I'd say a coin toss for home advantage is possible there.

There has been some speculation on this thread about the likely make-up of Waterford’s championship team. In looking at the possibilities, it is useful initially to attempt to identify the panel from which the team will be selected.

As far as I can make out, 29 players in all have seen game time in the National Hurling League so far. These are (in no particular order):

Shaun O’Brien, Conor Gleeson, Conor Prunty, Shane McNulty; Jack Fagan, Tadhg de Búrca, Iarlaith Daly; Cian Wadding, Darragh Lyons; Neil Montgomery, Patrick Curran, Kieran Bennett; Stephen Bennett, Michael Kiely (Abbeyside), Jack Prendergast, Shane Bennett, Michael Mahony, Pauric Mahony, Conor Dalton, Billy Power, Cárthach Daly, Darragh Lynch, Tom Barron, Austin Gleeson, Colin Dunford, DJ Foran, Mark Fitzgerald, Ian Beecher, Ciarán Kirwan.

There are five players who did not see league action but who will definitely be in the championship panel (if fit): Ian Kenny, Dessie Hutchinson, Jamie Barron, Calum Lyons  Peter Hogan.

There are four more who made appearances against Clare in the Munster Cup: Michael Kiely (Dungarvan), Sam Fitzgerald, Gavin Fives, Seamus Keating. I am presuming these all remain on the panel (Liam Cahill name-checked Keating last week when giving a list of injured players). Also, Michael Harney, a surprise inclusion in the substitutes’ list for last Sunday’s game, is now presumably a panel member. It is also possible that one or two more of the Ballygunner team have been added to the panel. Conor Sheahan was a panel member last year and one would think that Paddy Leavy deserves a place based on his club form.

All of these added up come to a total of 41, which gives an idea of the wealth of talent currently available, and the size of the task facing Liam Cahill and his selectors in even reducing this number to the match-day 26.

If all panel members were fit, I would envisage the following starting team:

Shaun O’Brien; Ian Kenny, Conor Prunty, Shane McNulty; Calum Lyons, Tadhg de Búrca, Iarlaith Daly; Neil Montgomery, Jamie Barron; Austin Gleeson, Patrick Curran, Jack Prendergast; Dessie Hutchinson, Michael Kiely (Abbeyside); Stephen Bennett.

Ian Kenny deserves his place based on outstanding club form, while Shane McNulty has been a favourite of Cahill’s from the off. I can see Montgomery filling the midfield spot for his physicality and hard running, key elements of Cahill’s game plan. It would be hard to deny Prendergast and Curran their places based on their league form. I imagine that if Calum Lyons and Jamie Barron fail to feature against Kilkenny they will not start in the first championship game against Tipperary, with their places possibly being taken by Jack Fagan and Darragh Lyons.

My match-day substitute list would be:

Billy Nolan, Jack Fagan, Darragh Lyons, Conor Gleeson, Kieran Bennett, Shane Bennett, Pauric Mahony, Cárthach Daly, Peter Hogan, Tom Barron, Colin Dunford.

Pauric Mahony was struggling to find form in the latter stages of Ballygunner’s All-Ireland run, but I expect will be included for his big-match experience. Billy Power has been used regularly by Cahill as a substitute, while Ciarán Kirwan might also be included to provide a target-man alternative to Kiely.

Anthony Daly has been reported as stating a few days ago that Waterford have the strongest 20-man panel in the country. I think you can extend that to the match-day panel, as you would be quite happy to have any of the above-named substitutes coming on during the game – and, indeed, several of the extended panel also.

That's the hard question but on the brightside it's gives more game time before the championship but on the negative side its giving other teams opportunity seeing us play

Winning the league- great, losing the league and maybe picking up some injuries-terrible.

On balance though, we can’t be turning up our noses at any trophy and with the panel we have, we would be crazy not to go for it big time.

We have to win a semi final first though! Let’s not be engraving the trophy just yet.

If im not mistaken i believe i saw an article at the start of the year claiming kevin mahoney paddy leavey and reuben halloran were also training with the panel. 2 of which havent seen any action due to ballygunners AI run

I had assumed we were playing KK today, hadn’t realised it wasn’t until next weekend and was wondering why a team hadn’t been announced.

Prunty picking up that injury obviously isn’t ideal but having had a week to recover, another week until the KK game (a game which is essentially a dead rubber from our perspective and one where we can we’ll afford to try another full back option in a challenging environment) and then another week until the league semi final, it hasn’t worked out too bad tbf.

Does anyone know, what's the story with Calum Lyons injury

I wouldn’t expect to see Prunty again until championship. Hamstring strain is 3 weeks minimum, I don’t think the league is that important that we should rush him back best let him get right for championship. He’s such an important figure and he is generally prone to a lot of nightly injuries. As someone else said give Daly or someone else a go at fullback as it’s better to have someone to slot in comfortably if needed.

Knee

@Giveitfong I think your post above isn't a serious suggestion but I'll reply anyway :-)

By all means use a couple of the panelists to get a look at them on Sunday (crucially alongside some first team players) but it would be folly to send an inexperienced team such as the above to play the current Leinster champions- it would end up with a Waterford team getting routed when they should be building on the progress made this year. It would smack of hubris and make people think Cahill is listening too much to people talking about the quality of the Waterford panel, and no better crowd than Kilkenny to send a weaker team packing.