Nine of the 2021 Waterford hurling panel will be in action in tonight’s senior relegation play-off between De La Salle and Ballysaggart at Fraher Field. The loser will drop to the intermediate ranks next season.
De La Salle won this fixture by 13 points last year but three-time All Star Dan Shanahan says that Saggart will be no pushovers.
“Ballysaggart should have topped their group. They should have beaten Fourmilewater, they should have beaten Tallow and they beat Lismore, which I can assure you was a hard pill to take, when it was a local derby game. They were very unlucky this year. They’re in a better position than what they were last year. If Ballysaggart can be in the game with ten minutes to go, they have a great chance of causing an upset.”
De La Salle lost to Dungarvan and Mount Sion in the group stages.
“At the start of the year, De La Salle would have been top four. They had six players on the extended inter county panel and you throw in lads that played underage with Waterford on top of that. I don’t think they’re happy down there to be in this situation, I know they’re not happy. They’ll have tread very carefully Friday evening playing a team that’s on a high after winning a local derby and should have won two games previous to that. They’ll have to come with everything to win the game.”
Hear more from Dan Shanahan on Friday’s Lár Na Páirce from 6.10 on WLR.
