Waterford name depleted team for crunch Clare clash

Niall McIntyre

Their preparations have been far from ideal.

Waterford will go into their Munster championship campaign opener against Clare this weekend with a weakened hand and a tough task.

2018 was always going to have a rocky start in store for the Déise. After losing last year’s All-Ireland final, the team understandably took a brief hiatus before putting the shoulder to the wheel for early season training. They were away on a team holiday into January while the majority of other county’s winter training routines were in full swing.

The League, unsurprisingly was a slog. Due to a combination of injuries and squad rotation by Derek McGrath, the men from the sunny south east never really had their strongest team out, and never really got going.

Relegation from 1A followed and so has the uncertainty. Kieran Bennett followed his brother Shane in deciding to take a year out from the panel.

In the build-up to their championship opener, McGrath was dealt another crushing blow with the news that two of the team’s most prolific forwards, in 2016 Hurler of the Year Austin Gleeson, and sharpshooter Pauric Mahony would both miss out through injury. Worse again, they’ll be up against it to make it back for the following weekend’s clash with Tipperary.

For now, all the focus is on the Banner challenge and with McGrath forced shuffled his pack considerably, he named the team he will send to Cusack Park for the 3.30 throw-in on Sunday.

A strong 15, from the goals to midfield, the only change from last September’s showpiece is the replacement of Kieran Bennett with the then suspended Conor Gleeson.

In attack, Tom Devine makes his championship return, while McGrath’s De La Salle club man Shane McNulty was named at corner forward, though it’s unlikely he will line out there.

Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh leads the line at full forward on a day he move level with Henry Shefflin on 71 Championship appearances.

Bizarrely, Maurice Shanahan is available for selection, despite his straight red in the relegation play-off loss to Cork in March.

Shanahan is available because of a rule which states that red cards in a promotion/relegation game only lead to time based bans, rather than match bans. If he had been sent off in a normal League game, he would be missing here.