The day has arrived for Waterford's last outing of 2023.
The hurlers know that their result against Tipperary is irrelevant when it comes to this year's championship, with progression from the province a mathematical impossibility.
Losses to Limerick, Cork and Clare have left the Déise propping up the bottom of the table, but to call it a "dead rubber" is a laughable notion according to former captain Brian Flannery.
Dead Rubber?
The Mount Sion club man told WLR's On The Ball on Saturday that while their performance can not affect the permutations, there is still a lot on the line for the players and management team in Semple Stadium.
"This week in the Munster Express the headline on my column was Dead Rubber? You must be kidding me," said Flannery.
"There is a huge amount at stake," he adds, saying that we can't sidestep the realities of the situation the county finds itself in.
Shuffling the deck
Davy Fitzgerald has named a team with just one change to the side that lost to Clare last time out, with Shaun O Brien between the sticks in place of Billy Nolan, who has been rumoured to feature out the field in Thurles.
While there is officially one change to the team, it is expected that we'll see four of five amendments when they cross the white line on the hallowed turf in the Premier county.
A Needed Lift
Flannery stresses that the fans need to see something from the team before the flags and bunting are packed away neat and tidy, waiting to be dusted off for the league in 2024.
"2024 starts tomorrow [Sunday]. I think everybody wants to see Waterford produce something, they want to see a performance, they want to see a team that walks tall - that are confident and that are capable of taking on anybody," the former Munster Championship winner says.
Last week, another former captain, Fergal Hartley felt that a sense of apathy had developed around the senior hurlers with small numbers of fans travelling to games - albeit in a year when all games were away games - and that the style of play has not helped that cause.
The man standing in the way
If that apathy is to be knocked back, then there is just one game to do it. The challenge is a great one, however. A rampant Tipperary side managed by former Déise boss Liam Cahill who will be hoping to guide his native county to a Munster final in his first year in charge. A win for the Premier will send them through to the decider against Clare - queue the fervent "Tipp are back" tweets should they pull it off.
The sourness which is under the surface following the departure of Cahill last year can't be ignored either. He's a man of pride with blue and gold running through his veins. The way it ended with Waterford will surely have rooted into his brain and festered. He had previously turned down Tipperary saying that the Waterford players were a hard bunch to walk away from.
He backed the group to go and win an All-Ireland. They did lift the league title, beating Cork, but ultimately his decision came back to bite him as he became another statistic in Waterfords ever growing list of disappointing round-robin campaigns. Now that he is wearing the bainisteoir's bib for "the home of hurling," beating Waterford to secure a place in the provincial final would make for the sweetest reward of all.
Tomorrow Starts Today
With the end already on top of us, and with a long wait until we see Waterford back in a competitive intercounty game, Flannery offers a glint of hope in what is an otherwise sombre occasion.
"I would have probably said - with a view to looking at 2024 - and if this management team are going to be there in 2o24, yeah, maybe trying out a few new players and give them the experience of playing Championship up in Semple Stadium. If you are really talking about developing players and developing the team for next year, which invariably is what we're looking at now. Yeah, let's have a go, let's see it."
