The All-Ireland camogie championship group stage comes to an end this afternoon with Waterford hosting Antrim in Carriganore.
Neither side have lost a game in the campaign to date, and while Waterford are ahead on score difference, they remain deadlocked on six points apiece at the top of the table.
The three teams that top the three separate groups will go into a hat - Waterford and Antrim in Group 3 - with two teams getting an automatic place in the final four. One team will be left to content themselves in the quarter-finals.
Both Antrim and Waterford know before throw-in that they will at least have a quarter-final berth, but both sides will be vying to buy that ticket to the final four outright.
Last time out, Sean Power's side gave Limerick their second hammering of 2023, beating the Treaty 2.19 to 0.11 at Cappamore, but he says that there is still room for improvement.
"We identified a few areas after the Limerick game that need to be improved on," said Power. "This is a bigger test again I would say, both of us are qualified for the knockout stages, but you want to be going into the knockout stages with a 3-from-3 record instead of 2 & 1." Power notes.
The quarter-finals are a place that Waterford are all too familiar with. They've featured in the final eight for the last five years straight, but until last year, had struggled to hammer their way through that wall. All too often it was Tipperary that brought an end to Waterford's hopes, but that all changed in 2022.
A first-ever senior win over Tipperary was secured on the Déise's route to the quarter-finals, where they would go on to beat Limerick.
That result in Semple Stadium brought an end to a long-standing and unfortunate record for Waterford camogie. It had been 63 years since they had featured in a semi.
If the team can keep the pace they have set so far this season, we could well be looking at them in back-to-back semi-finals for the first time ever, but they will first have to handle the Saffrons who are similarly fighting for the same prize.
The manager is all too aware of the challenge that they will face at the SETU Arena, telling WLR Sport that, "if you give them even a sniff of an opportunity to get back into a game, they absolutely will. This is what we need to learn in Waterford. Where you are in control of a game, you have to continue to maintain control as difficult as that is. Even mentally, if you feel you have switched off for a minute ."
